The buzz on Bee Movie has been a little deafening. Previews started months ago, there have been countless "TV Juniors" on NBC, and Jerry Seinfeld himself has been on basically every show from Leno to local news. It's been an interesting promotional blitz because, until this week, no one could really answer one important question - is the movie any good? Every article about Bee Movie centered on Jerry's return to the mainstream or Spielberg's involvement, but they seemed to almost be avoiding the issue of quality. Yeah, Jerry Seinfeld is clever in those commercials and near-brilliant on talk shows, but can he turn Barry B. Benson into a movie star like Shrek or Mr. Incredible? It almost seemed like an afterthought as the marketing overshadowed any question of quality and that makes audiences and critics wary that there's a reason the movie is being hidden from view. Good news. Not this time. Bee Movie is one of the better animated films of the year, an enjoyable and consistently clever ride courtesy of the very original comic viewpoint of the man who made arguably the best sitcom of all time.

Seinfeld voices Barry B. Benson, a bee who we meet on the day that he's graduating and about to pick his job in the hive. When he learns that he'll have to keep the same boring job for the rest of his life, Barry gets upset and wishes he could be a pollen jock, one of the bees who gets to leave and pollinate flowers. Our hero joins the jocks on a mission and gets stuck in the home of Vanessa (Renee Zellweger) and her loser boyfriend (the always-great Patrick Warburton). After Vanessa saves Barry's life, he breaks the cardinal rule and speaks to her. Yes, bees can speak, they just don't. Barry and Vanessa become friends and the little bee that could discovers that humans have been harvesting his hivemates' honey for their own use. So he does what any victimized creature would do, he sues. Then the movie gets really unpredictable.

Whatever you may say about Bee Movie (and some critics have been unexplainably harsh already), that's not your standard animated plot. Most animated movie scripts are so predictable that even a third grader could tell you where they're going from reel one. Not so with Bee Movie. It's consciously twisting and turning in much the same way that Seinfeld did. The ridiculous coincidences and odd behavior that surrounded Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer kept Seinfeld unpredictable and that's what Jerry brings to Bee Movie, a comedic viewpoint that's purely his own. He was involved with the film on every level and it makes it one of the more original animated features of the last few years.

Everyone involved in Bee Movie has been quick to point out that the film is a comedy first. It's not a technical advancement like Toy Story or even an action movie like The Incredibles. It's meant just to make you laugh. Judged on that scale, it definitely works but it doesn't hit the ball out of the park. Bee Movie is consistently clever enough that you'll be smiling, but you might wish it was more regularly laugh-out-loud funny, particularly in the first act. It's what you could call a "chuckler." You'll laugh pretty regularly, but not that hard. Despite that fact, Bee Movie is still more enjoyable than most of the animated flicks released this year including the one with the penguins and the sequel with the stinky ogre. In fact, only the rat might beat the bee this year in the medium of animation (which should make for a very interesting Oscar race). We thought the buzz on Bee Movie might be disguising a flick with no sting, but this honey's actually pretty sweet.