Movement and Performance Analysis in Bee Movie Animation

Introduction: Movement as Language in Animation

Movement and performance are elements in an animated film that require awareness and attention to all the details of human action on the part of the creator. Movement in animation is a language the animator must first analyze and then learn to express in order to produce smooth, lifelike action. The idea is to make it look as natural as possible, but ironically, to produce that effect, the animator must exaggerate. This is as true in Bee Movie as in any other animated film. Movements must be bigger and bolder to make it work and to create a sense of reality for viewers. The animated version of movement, then, imitates and enhances the real thing — which, when compared to its animated counterpart, can appear weak and less definite. Caricature is often part of the creation of characters, as is stylization.

Bee Movie tells the story of Barry (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld), a bee who decides to leave his community before taking on full-time employment in the hive. He wants to find out what the wider world is like. His adventure includes becoming close friends with a human woman who owns a flower shop. Barry discovers that human beings are harvesting honey from bee hives and selling it for profit. Outraged, he becomes a lawyer and sues the owners of honey processing and distribution plants. He wins his case and orders the hive factories closed so that bees can rest from their constant labors. An unexpected complication — aside from the fact that the bees are bored and unhappy with no work to do — is that the earth becomes a barren place without bees to pollinate plants, trees, and crops. In the end, Barry finds a way to save the world.

The scene analyzed in this paper takes place immediately following Barry's legal victory in court. Barry and his human friend are celebrating their win together when the woman's boyfriend comes home from work. In this sequence, the boyfriend reveals how jealous he is of Barry and how much he resents Barry for stealing his girlfriend's time, attention, and affection. This paper examines the movement and body language in this scene to explore how a believable performance is accomplished in animation, focusing on the non-verbal, emotional component of communication conveyed through gesture and expression.

Construction of the Characters

"Casting" is important to any dramatic performance, and what characters look like contributes directly to the believability of their performances. In Bee Movie, Barry looks like a sweet, innocent, and non-cynical version of Jerry Seinfeld. He has enormous blue eyes with black eyebrows and short brown hair. He does not appear to have ears, but he does have long, slender black antennae rising from the top of his head, which he sometimes uses expressively. His body is yellow with black horizontal stripes — achieved visually by having him wear a turtleneck sweater. Small, clear, gauze-like wings, rather angelic in appearance, are attached to his back and are usually in motion. Each wing appears to be constructed of two oval segments. Barry's long, thin arms are yellow, and he wears black gloves on his very human-looking hands, which have opposing thumbs and long, delicate fingers. He has skinny, delicate legs and wears black high-top tennis shoes similar to Converse. In a flourish of whimsy, Barry's horizontal black stripes continue all the way to his rear end, which resembles a bull's-eye on a dartboard.

His female friend is very beautiful, as a love interest should be. Her face has a heart-like shape, with very large, soulful round eyes and gracefully arched eyebrows. Her nose curves gently upward, and her pink mouth sometimes forms a heart shape. Her brown hair falls in a simple curve that frames her face. She wears a sweater over a blouse, and the shirt collar of the blouse stands up in a perky manner. Everything about her is feminine and appealing without being overtly sexy.

Her boyfriend has a long, athletic-looking body — long torso, long legs, long arms, and broad shoulders. His face is rather long and angularly squared-off, with a very long chin that flares slightly at the bottom. His arms are thick and muscular. He is reminiscent of a classic Hollywood leading man of the Robert Mitchum type. When he enters, he appears to have removed his suit jacket and loosened his tie, signaling to the viewer that he is returning home from work. He wears a white shirt with the cuffs turned back halfway between wrist and elbow, and grey trousers.

Conclusion: The Craft of Believable Animation

The action is believable because of careful attention to the details of movement. When the boyfriend tries to strike Barry with the rolled-up magazine, for instance, his arm first comes back before going forward — a classic example of anticipation — allowing the viewer to understand what is about to happen. The speed of the sequence builds quickly but perceptibly, reflecting a subtle display of stored energy being released. The magazine, having weight and requiring a large arc to connect with its target, moves farther than anything else in the subsequent frames. The boyfriend's body appears to unwind for maximum force, the action originating in his legs and traveling through his entire body.

Successful and believable character animation depends on a thorough knowledge of how the human body moves and how facial expression changes to reveal emotion. The painstaking part of the work lies in dividing each action into tiny segments, each one accurate and meaningful in itself. Combined, those segments produce the performance of the "actors" — that is, the animated characters — and create a sense of realism and believability for the audience.