Applied with strict rigor, that’s how bee society works in Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie” and apparently in real life. Doesn’t seem like much fun. You are born, grow a little, attend school for three days, and then go to work for the rest of your life. “Are you going to work us to death?” a young bee asks during a briefing. “We certainly hope so!” says the smiling lecturer, to appreciative chuckles all around.

One bee, however, is not so thrilled with the system. His name is Barry B. Benson, and he is voiced by Seinfeld as a rebel who wants to experience the world before settling down to a lifetime job as, for example, a Crud Remover. He sneaks into a formation of ace pollinators, flies out of the hive, has a dizzying flight through Central Park, and ends up (never mind how) making a friend of a human named Vanessa (voice of Renee Zellweger). Then their relationship blossoms into something more, although not very much more, given the physical differences. Compared to them, a Chihuahua and a Great Dane would have it easy. 

This friendship is against all the rules. Bees are forbidden to speak to humans. And humans tend to swat bees (there’s a good laugh when Barry explains how a friend was offed by a rolled-up copy of French Vogue). What Barry mostly discovers from human society is, gasp!, that humans rob the bees of all their honey and eat it. He and Adam, his best pal (Matthew Broderick), even visit a bee farm, which looks like forced labor of the worst sort. Their instant analysis of the human-bee economic relationship is pure Marxism, if only they knew it.

Short review of Ironheart