The eponymous heroine of this animated film aimed at very young children is a plucky apian moppet who has a mildly exciting adventure in the meadow and then goes home. Along the way she makes friends with another nerdy bee and a feisty yet likable hornet kid and, indeed, manages to forge a peace accord between all insects in the microclimate while finding her place in the hive and learning to love herself.
Although the inclusive, vaguely ecological moral message is hard to argue with, it’s pretty charmless stuff, low on wit, cheaply designed and so saccharine even reception-age kids might roll their eyes. A cursory search of Wikipedia reveals intriguingly that the whole concept dates back to a German children’s book from 1912 with ominously militarist overtones, but this latest iteration is as blandly export-friendly and culturally nonspecific as an airline meal.
