The king of TV comedy gets animated. Not that there's anything wrong with that.' I think I'm bringing a different sensibility to an animated movie. There's a lot of attitude.
By Cathleen McGuigan
Newsweek
Dec. 25, 2006 - Jan. 1, 2007 issue - It's hard to believe it's been eight years since "Seinfeld" left prime time, and with it Seinfeld himselfstar, co-writer and producer of the most successful comedy series ever. Yes, the show will be in reruns for eternity. And yes, Seinfeld pops up on TV now and thennotably on David Letterman last month, where he arranged for his friend Michael Richards, a.k.a. Kramer, to apologize for the racist rant he'd unleashed in an L.A. comedy club. "Obviously, it was hideous and horrible," says Seinfeld, "but I'm so proud of how he has stepped uphe has been a real man. All you can do in life is try to turn something horrible into something progressive."
But what's Seinfeld really been up to? Even the comedian whose show was famously about nothing must have been doing something. We know he's got a growing familythree kids ages 6 and under. He occasionally does live stand-up. But it turns out he's been quietly busy for the last three years writing, producing and starring in a movie for DreamWorks, a film that's sure to produce enormous buzz, not least because it's called "Bee Movie." You may have seen the recent trailer, a goofy tease with Jerry dressed in an unwieldy yellow bee suita gag more Lucille Ball than Seinfeldian. So laugh, but don't be fooled. The movie, actually, is animated and stars Seinfeld's distinctly New York voice as Barry B. Benson, a bee who leaves the hive and discovers, to his horror, that humans have been stealing their honey. While out in the wide world, Barry falls for Vanessa, a New York City florist (voiced by Renée Zellweger). "Somehow you buy that these two hit it off," Seinfeld explains. "It's sweet, it's sweetbut I don't really go for sweet. It happened, and I didn't resist. But I just go for funny."
Seinfeld's having coffee off Broadway in New Yorknot in a greasy spoon like the coffee shop where Jerry, George and Elaine kvetched about the minutiae of their lives, but in a slightly Frenchified place called Le Pain Quotidien. It means "daily bread," but somehow "quotidian" seems right for Seinfeld, 52, a guy whose entire career is built on his bemused study of everyday life. He says the idea for "Bee Movie" began with just the title: "I thought B-movie was a good idea for a movie about bees," he deadpans. When he saw the animation technology at DreamWorks, he was hooked. "I love technology, socomedy, technology, cartoons." In his New York office, Seinfeld is connected to the studio in California via computer screens where animators display the images they're working on with him. Everyone's still tweakingthe movie won't be out until Novemberand Seinfeld, an inveterate tweaker, is still rewriting. "I think I'm bringing a different humorous sensibility to an animated movie," he says. "There's a lot of attitude in the jokes, the same way it was on the show."
