This Should Bee Good

Jerry Seinfeld is finally back on the big screen....well, sorta, in Dreamworks new animated movie Bee Movie. Seinfeld will be voicing the character of Barry Bee Benson, a local college graduate who has spent his life preparing for the big wide world ahead of him. However, after graduation, Barry becomes troubled when he realizes the world isn't that big at all and he has one task in life, to make honey. Barry travels outside the hive and breaks the big rule of talking to humans, which is where Renee Zellweger's character comes in. Barry then sues humans for confiscating their honey, only in the end to find that by doing this he has put every bee out of a job. Also, without bees pollinating the flowers anymore, plant life soon begins to die. It is now up to Barry to find a way to get the jobs back for his fellow employ-bees and restore order to mother nature.

This is not the first big animated movie for Dreamworks. In 2006 they released the comedy Over the Hedge starring the voice of Bruce Willis. The movie grossed over $150 million in the box office alone and was a favorite among children in teens.

Dreamworks is taking the common marketing route when coming to this movie. They have released two trailers thus far and plan on releasing a video game on October 30th that will be available on various platforms. They have also released a movie poster capitalizing on the visual imagery and animation the movie will feature. Their web site is also interesting, offering everything from icons, screen savers, even recipes that you can download and use. It also offers a section for kids and moms to explore ways honey can help their health and beauty.

The coolest marketing tactic I found however is one that I haven't seen a lot of movies take advantage of. Dreamworks animation have taken the common idea of Neo-pets and Tamogatchi and created a Bee-a-pet, a widget application you can place on your desktop or web page. In this application, you receive your very own bee in which you are capable of feeding, bathing, making it sleep, or making it work. The application allows users a chance to experience the movie at the forefront by having their very own character and pet.

I took the time to download this application and play around with it a little bit. It's fun and doesn't require a lot of your time. You can simply check in from time to time and make sure your Bee is still alive and happy, and you can watch him grow up. I stopped using the application however because of the fact that I use a Mac, and would much rather prefer it to add it to my widgets page instead of it own sidebar. Because the application is available to download on yahoo, you have to download a separate widget application called Yahoo Widgets, which then mounts itself on the side of your computer screen. Anyone looking to reminisce about the golden days should defiantly take advantage of this application, but if you are a neat freak such as myself and don't wish do have sidebars cluttering up your computer screen, I recommend not downloading it.