Maya the Bee Movie (2014)

I saw an episode of the old Maya the Honey Bee anime on TV not long ago (time goes by so fast, it was probably last year) and, though I didn't love it as I used to as a child, I still found it cute and fun, 20 minutes no-brainer. It's a whole different story for Maya the Bee Movie, the dreadful film I watched to "recover" from Oscars night (yes, I watched and reviewed this movie that long ago). 

Maya (Coco Jack Gillies) is a little, overenthusiastic bee who just doesn't and won't follow the rules of the hive, one of them being to not trust hornets. When she discovers Buzzlina Von Beena's (Jacki Weaver) plot to steal the Queen's (Miriam Margolyes) royal jelly, Maya is banished from the hive as she is thought to be an accomplice to the hornets. With her best friend Willy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) tagging along, Maya meets and befriend Sting (Joel Franco), a young hornet, and together they have to stop the plot and the war between bees and hornets.

The plot is very simple and extremely easy to follow. There are no twists whatsoever, buzzilions of subplots that are brief and pointless and last like 5 seconds. It has any cliché you can think of and lacks originality --I was expecting this to be inspired by the anime, not being a compilation of episodes. Moreover, it isn't even engaging. It's just plain boring. However, it isn't boring enough to make you fall asleep. That's a win, right? Also, the message about friendship, being yourself and accepting what and who is different somehow gets delivered. 

Too many subplots aren't the only problem, there are too many characters as well. And they have no characterization and their introduction is completely pointless since they have no power over the main plot. You take all these supporting characters away and the result is the same, only a lot shorter than 1 hour and 30 minutes. At least the main characters, Maya, Billy and Sting, have a decent characterization.

Studio Canal, Universum Film

The comedy is another problem. The original anime mostly relies on slapstick and so does this movie. Unfortunately, while that can make you chuckle or even laugh in a 20 minutes episode, when you have to fill a whole feature film with it, it just doesn't work. Maybe kids would find this amusing, I don't know, but the comedy here, for me, just flat as a board.

Maya the Bee Movies isn't visually appealing either. It looks like animation from a video game. An old video game.