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Maya the Bee (film)
2014 animated film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Maya the Bee (promoted theatrically as Maya the Bee Movie) is a 2014 animated adventure comedy film directed by Alexs Stadermann, loosely based on the 1975 anime Maya the Bee as well as indirectly on the German children's book The Adventures of Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels. The first animated film in the Maya the Bee franchise, it was produced by Studio 100 Animation and Buzz Studios, and distributed by StudioCanal in Australia and by Universum Film in Germany. It features the voices of Coco Jack Gillies, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Noah Taylor, Richard Roxburgh, Jacki Weaver, Justine Clarke, The Umbilical Brothers, and Miriam Margolyes.
Maya the Bee was released theatrically on 4 September 2014. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but grossed $29.6 million worldwide. Two sequels to Maya the Bee were released: The Honey Games in 2018, The Golden Orb in 2021, and an upcoming spin-off titled Arnie & Barney scheduled for 2026.
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Plot
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Maya is born in a world of rules, but when she discovers villainous Buzzlina Von Beena's plot to steal the Queen's royal jelly, Maya is banished from the hive and into the meadow. With her best friend Willy tagging along, Maya meets a young hornet named Sting. Together they have to stop the plot and the fight between bees and hornets before it is too late.
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Voice cast
- Coco Jack Gillies as Maya, a young bee girl.[9]
- Kodi Smit-McPhee as Willy, a young bee boy, Maya's best friend.[10]
- Joel Franco as Sting, a young hornet, Maya and Willy's best friend and sidekick.
- Richard Roxburgh as Flip, a grasshopper.[10]
- Justine Clarke as Miss Cassandra, a bee teacher at the bee school and Maya's mother at heart.[10]
- Jacki Weaver as Buzzlina Von Beena, the royal counselor of the beehive and Maya's arch-enemy.[10]
- Andy McPhee as Hank, the leader of hornets, Sting's father, Bees friends, and former arch-rivals.[10]
- Miriam Margolyes as The Queen, the mother of Bees.[10]
- David Collins as Arnie, an ant soldier, Paul's right-hand.[10]
- Shane Dundas as Barney, an ant soldier, Arnie's partner and Paul's right-hand.[10]
- Jimmy James Eaton as Paul, an ant colonel, the leader of ants.[10]
- Heather Mitchell as The Nurse, chief of the worker bees.[10]
- Noah Taylor as Crawley, the hilariously bumbling of the beehive, The Queen's loyal assistant and Buzzlina's former henchman.[10]
- Cameron Ralph as Momo, a moth.[10]
- Glenn Fraser as Kurt, a dung beetle.[10]
- Heather Mitchell as Thekla, an evil and stubborn bug-eating spider.[10]
- Stavroula Mountzouris as Lara, a ladybug who is Willy's love interest.[10]
- Sam Haft as Drago, a dragonfly.[10]
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Production
Universum Film distributed the film in German-speaking territories through Buena Vista International,[a] while StudioCanal handled the distribution in Australasia. The film is directed by Alexs Stadermann, and produced by Patrick Elmendorff and Thorsten Wegener from Studio 100 Animation in Munich; and Jim Ballantine and Barbara Stephen from Buzz Studios in Sydney.[12][5] The film was produced in association with Flying Bark Productions and the channel ZDF.[13][14] This film was Coco Jack Gillies' film debut, voicing the role of Maya. Gillies was 9 years old at the time of production.[5][10]
Reception
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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 47% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[16]
Frank Hatherley of Screen Daily positively assessed the visuals and action scenes, along with Coco Jack Gillies' performance as Maya.[5] In one of his articles for Variety, Peter Debruge felt the plot was "innocuous and uninspired as preschool animation gets" and criticised the character designs as "rudimentary at best", but he considered it a "relief to parents exhausted by the overly antic quality of all those other bug stories" and praised the target audience's interest in Maya's interaction with the other Poppy Meadow insects.[17] Although Michael Rechtstaffen of The Hollywood Reporter thought the film wouldn't generate "much of a buzz beyond female preschoolers", he praised its story as well as the cast's performances.[18]
Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times questioned the film's dialogue and ending scenes, and later called it a "self-consciously uplifting treacle some adults insist kids want".[19] Writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, Jake Wilson called the film's plot a "wearyingly familiar story", but praised the animation as well as Maya's characterisation.[20]
Accolades
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Sequel
See also
References
External links
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