Did DreamWorks Steal the Idea for Bee Movie?

[@joebert_]

choosing to say "does barry b. belong in jail" instead of belong behind bars should be a sin

[@mattmcarbwill2694]

Came here to comment this. Should absolutely be behind bars.

[@amberwingtundrawing776]

Im glad we all thought this lol

[@froggycolouring]

I was literally on that part when I looked down to see if someone else beat me to it lol

[@merasmusentertainment]

Beelong beehind beers.

[@RF-Ataraxia]

There bee a bunch of bees in there

[@BananaTheNinja]

It's very possible that the dreamworks decided to pass on Beebylon but then Seinfeld was like "what if we made a pun off of b-movie hehe?" and someone went "remember that movie about bees we got pitched a while back?" and they used that as a jumping off point. I think the sweaters and the flightsuits are weird similarity like "bees aren't actually black and yellow, its clothes" is a weird decision for two groups to come up with.

[@WoolyCow]

yeah i was thinking the same with the sweaters too haha...

[@zillauniverse7208]

I think it’s funny knowing that Steven Spielberg is the one that came up with Dreamworks movies that will eventually become memes like Bee Movie and Shrek.

[@iwavrQwpX4uB39nilBlQ]

no wonder they were so successful though :)

[@lukaspatrickson4776]

My theory is that DreamWorks stole the ideas for Bee Movie, not Jerry Seinfeld. This has happened before, and there’s a big possibility that DreamWorks just refused to inform Jerry about the pitch they received years ago. They obviously said yes when a beloved celebrity wanted to work with them, and telling him about the obvious bump that Beebylon could cause issues in what seemed like the simplest movie ever.

[@owRekssjfjxjxuurrpqpqss]

That sounds the most likely Jerry was too busy with his 17 year old girlfriend to be involved with pitching films.

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

Ya that's a good theory

[@dabatman5187]

That’s likely what happened

[@headshotmaster138]

@@owRekssjfjxjxuurrpqpqss I'm sorry, what?

[@axmoylotl]

@@headshotmaster138jerry seinfeld had a 17 year old girlfriend when he was 38 years old.

[@rileyweston236]

I think Dreamworks would've gone forward with any movie Jerry pitched. It was the first major project Jerry wanted to do after his sitcom.

[@wellyeahok]

I'm still waiting for the sequel, C movie.

[@dippin4dots]

Sea Movie - The Lost city of Atlantis is discovered, but it was ran and governed by Sea Monkeys. They just so happen to look exactly like the Bee's, hijynx ensue when Venessa falls in love with the Barry look-a-like. Ken and Barry team up to take down this guy just Beecause they are jealous, but they both realise Venessa is insane for falling in love with both bees and sea monkeys. But when they find out more and more people are falling in love with the Sea Monkeys they figure out that the Sea Monkeys are controlling the minds of the humans. Atlantis is defeated, Venessa stays with the Sea Monkeys and was never actually under their control, she just is actually insane. And Barry finds a new love in Ken... 's sister in which sparks Ken's rivalry with Barry again.

[@CT7056]

Sea movie about fish.

[@wii-u-enjoyer]

don't forget the prequel, A Movie

[@brianbarker2551]

He makes movies about Pop Tarts now, and it's not that good.

[@LegendaryNuggets]

3:55 What? I can clearly read some names the producers name is Thomas Allercrantz and there's a guy named Robert Asproth

[@mushybutton]

I also read "Kjellstrom"

[@maxfi878]

I could read at least Adel Kjellström, Christian Bergqvist, Thomas Allercrantz, Henrik Wallgren, Per Umerus, Nicklas Rundkvist, Pierre Botrous, Jan Karlström, Robert Asproth, Ida Ljunggren, Inger Ericson, Peter Lindholm, Claes Lundqvist.

[@JonahStratos]

Bee movie always felt like a refined version of Antz to me.

[@Curelax]

Antz is a good movie to compare it to imo because of A Bug's Life being simulatenously developed with Antz

[@blameitoncapitalism]

Bold of you to call it "refined" lol

[@Wnick1996]

Didn't know that there was such a buzz around Bee Movie.

[@erzei]

I see what you did there

[@ValerieTheBat]

I will give that Joke a Bee plus.

[@Treyman-yi7ei]

How could there not Bee

[@houraisheperd9721]

Booooooooooo.

[@LukerDukerDoo]

@@houraisheperd9721 BFDI BFDIA IDFB BFB TPOT

[@AJSSPACEPLACE]

If you make an update, get more information on that court case you mentioned. Find out what court it was in, when it was done, and wether or not some kind of settlement was reached. You mentioned that lawsuit once, and never really brought up anything else about it. But I’m curious what the court concluded.

[@ChaunceyGardener]

This kind of research is fun. I read that the movie Big (1988) was inspired by an Italian movie of the same premise. I watched both movies.

[@TahtahmesDiary]

Do you remember what the name of the Italian version was?

[@ChaunceyGardener]

@@TahtahmesDiaryDa Grande (1987)

[@bobafettjr85]

I'm gonna go ahead and say it's not theft since the only thing they have in common is bees. In Bee movie they sued humans over honey while in Beebylon they were documenting humans. That's two completely different stories. The same way Antz and A Bug's Life only have ants in common. Or Deep Impact and Armageddon both have giant meteors.

[@connorbeith3232]

I was under the impression that Jerry simply said the idea as a joke and didn't intend for it to be an actual movie and Spielberg was the one who took it seriously and wanted to make it.

[@cheeseking2825]

I feel like that story is still true, I think this part was left out

[@Sinbook]

What I think might have happened here, is one of 2 things.... the Identical Idea situation, like how they're 2 versions of Dennis the menace or dream works actually owns some kind of rights to beebaylon (Not un common for an animation studio to have the rights to an idea once it's pitched, DreamWorks actually did this with The Croods with it originally being an Aardman property) and the higher ups kept dropping ideas to Seinfeld with him genuinely being non the wiser

[@connorbeith3232]

I wonder if that's why Aardman made Early Man.

[@gracekim1998]

@@connorbeith3232 have you ever WATCHED Early man?🤦‍♀️ that’s all about football ⚽️ at a later part of the Stone Age when it and the Bronze Age overlapped

[@sorcerersapprentice]

Personally, I'm not convinced. This whole thing reminds me of the whole "The Lion King stole from Kimba" accusation you see people throw around sometimes. That rumour was debunked. For one, Disney based the idea on Bambi and Hamlet, even the staff working on it jokingly called it "Bamblet". Anime wasn't mainstream in the west and was only seen as kids entertainment at the time, so the people working on The Lion King probably either never heard of it or remember that show as much as an adult now would recall an episode of the TeleTubbies. Plus, like YourMovieSucks pointed out, if you actually watch the series, they only use the same concept and differ massively. They might've taken some ideas from Kimba, but it's still different enough from the original cartoon that it becomes its own thing and isn't plagiarism. Hell, even Osamu Tezuka's own family doesn't believe it's a ripoff. It's the same thing here. It just seems like Jerry Seinfeld came up with a similar idea. Because, realistically speaking, how the hell would've he known about the existence of that student film? Coincidences like this happen all the time, so it's likely the same thing here.

[@gracekim1998]

Exactly 😅

[@smallfungus2675]

one difference between Kimba and this Beebylon, is that the family of Osamu Tezuka, kinda just want to move on from the Kimba controversy, cause it undermines his other achievements. Meanwhile the Beebylon people seem angry and disgruntled over an idea that's somewhat similary done by Dreamworks and Seinfeld.

[@BeyondBaito]

People sourced the Kimba movie that ripped off Lion King as proof like that doesnt even make sense.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

No, the Kimba plagiarism was never "debunked". Early production artwork, present as bonus features on a DVD release of The Lion King, show a WHITE lion cub with a movie title King of the Jungle. (The title King of the Jungle itself isn't proof, as it's a common phrase, but it is the English translation of Kimba's original title, ジャングル大帝. Also, Roy Disney referred to the character as Kimba. (See below.) YMS's entire argument was that because Disney didn't adapt every single element of a long running manga and anime series into their single feature length movie, then that means it wasn't plagiarism. By that logic, The Little Mermaid isn't actually based on the original story of the same name because the ending is completely different. (No, I'm not accusing Disney of "stealing" The Little Mermaid, as it was in the public domain and had every right to use it.) >>> ARTS BB TOPIC: ROY DISNEY TIME: 07/19[/1993] 8:23 PM TO: JILL SAUDER (JKFG91B) FROM: ROY DISNEY (STAR99B) SUBJECT: "ROY ON MOMS" Jill, you asked whether we had any "nice motherly figures" in Disney's animated future. Wait until you see next summer's "The Lion King," and Kimba's mother. She's quite lovely. Roy Disney >>> For more info, see web.archive.org/web/20120415175117/www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

Ya it reminds me of it too.

[@smittzero8463]

Wow, I got to this one early. At the moment, I'm not convinced that Dreamworks stole the idea. But I'd like to see what else from Beebylon can be dug up.

[@andreworillion5970]

A Bug's Life and Antz are both about insects/bugs but they are miles apart in tone and style. Bug's Life is basically Seven Samurai with cute bugs, while Antz is a dark comedy meant for a much more mature audience.

[@Jezzikinz]

A Bug's Life being analogous to Seven Samurai is probably the best description I've ever read...

[@jsmith3946]

also the guy came up with Ants years before bugs was even a thing he tried to get he movie made when he work for apple and pitch it to jobs

[@andreworillion5970]

I didn't know. Funny story about Antz, I had a professor in college who insisted that Antz was actually pronounced "Ant Z" and not "Ants" because the main character was named Zed. No matter how much evidence we showed him that this was not true he not be dissuaded. @@jsmith3946

[@GrandCorsair]

I'm not convinced. The similarities are too surface level. All we have is DreamWorks knew of the movie and a pretty basic idea that with very different executions.

[@smactork]

missed opportunity to say "...belong behind bars?" to keep the B's going

[@nesmario123]

this... feels like jungle emperor leo and lion king all over again

[@jsmith3946]

they both where a rip off of kimba the white lion

[@nesmario123]

nice one, that made me laugh@@jsmith3946

[@greenamber9827]

​@@jsmith3946Jungle Emperor Leo is the original Japanese name for Kimba the White Lion.

[@WhoElseButZane]

A movie being about bees is not plagiarism. It's not that original of a concept. It's what you do with the concept that requires creativity.

[@gracekim1998]

Exactly 😅 why does nobody get this? They accuse Madagascar of being a ripoff of The wild when former is remembered more than the latter and the supposed incident with Lion king and kimba even though the former is based on hamlet and the latter is a very old anime

[@8thFurno]

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

[@dennisbowen452]

​@@gracekim1998also the wild came out after madagascar. Even then, the knockoff somehow was better than the original (doubt)

[@gracekim1998]

@@dennisbowen452exactly!😅 the wild came out after

[@gracekim1998]

I’m actually considering unsubscribing because of the thumbnail 😅 because i don’t believe for a second that any of this is plagiarism because the beebylon thing seems to have never been released🤷‍♀️

[@smallfungus2675]

personally I don't see. Though this lawsuit reminds me of this one author that tried to sue Micheal Crichton, Spielberg, and Universal over Jurassic Park, cause they thought they own the idea of dinosaurs in theme parks. Though when looking at both sources there's clearly alot of differences to see they're both they're own thing.

[@jettstoons]

this is not plagiarism? i mean yea the concept is KINDA similar, but i don't think there's any real evidence of this. It's like those JFK and Lincoln assassination links, like yea sure i guess there's some coincidences, but there's no real weight to it. But good video anyways.

[@LezbeOswald]

9:50 okay but jerry seinfeld does know that The Secret Life of Bees isn’t literally about bees, though, right?

[@Jade-g6p]

I think some of the similarities could easily just be based on common knowledge and experiences with bees. We know that hives are highly organized and dedicated to their goal which leads to the business focus. Up close, bees look fuzzy like a sweater. Bees typically avoid humans if they can but some are more curious.

[@RustyNips]

Ya bees are very curious Ive had a few near my porch they like to fly up real close like in my face and just watch me. Very friendly bee comeing and greeting me every time I go outside. They are curious but will leave you alone if you just ignore them you only get stung if you scare them by flailing your arms around and screaming.

[@cremebrulee344]

I actually think the beebylon plot had potential, even as a snarky Dreamworks film. The idea of the nature documentary for humans is basically reality tv, and there was a lot of iconic reality tv on at the time. Since it said the bees start acting like the humans, it would be pretty funny to see them acting out jersey shore type drama because they’re sucked into the show. Maybe the main character really wants to just document humans as a scientist, but she is pressured by higher ups to play up drama and even start faking stuff. It would be silly and lighthearted but also have that edgier humor that dreamworks made its trademark at the time. It would also ride the wave of public discourse surrounding reality tv, which was huge at the time

[@johnathantaylor5913]

4:00 - "It is impossible to make out any of the names." -- What screen are your viewing this image on because I can quite clearly make out *most* of these names.

[@A-W80]

I'll be honest, these ideas seem completely different. Yeah Bees interacting with the human world may fit both films but that is a very broad description, and other than that they seem to have nothing in common

[@TheJimMcC]

I think the plot is different but the core concept of the movies are the same. I think dreamworks saw and liked the “bee society” pitch from Beebylon and coincidentally Jerry came up with the title pun and was thrown into the fray and developed his own plot with the same bee society concept

[@tunnelsnakesrule7541]

They did take the smart bees go to the UN thing from the 1978 movie 'The Bees'.

[@kitsunegiblaze8022]

This is like Kimba VS Lion King, lol.

[@tfordham13]

​@@TheJimMcCyou can copyright a core idea

[@danthemanspear]

No one owns the idea of human’s and bees interacting with each other. both films have different interpretations of an idea.

[@carmelosgro6413]

I think they are not the same. It's like comparing Armageddon with Deep Impact. Both are about an asteroids but handled in very different ways

[@tylertilwick6852]

This honestly isn’t the first time Steven Spielberg has been accused of something like this. He was accused of ripping off the 70s William Shatner movie Kingdom of Spiders when making Arachnophobia (which he executive produced under his company, Amblin Entertainment).

[@jsmith3946]

those films are nothing alike

[@KingGhidorah007]

There was also ET and Close Encounters being similar to an unfilmed script by Satyajit Ray that was floating around Hollywood for a while. And there was the Amistad accusation of plagiarism. He really does have a long history of this stuff.

[@stapler942]

This is a roundabout example and I don't think anyone has seriously made this accusation, but Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park was technically published after the pulp novel Carnosaur, which involved dinos in a zoo and even featured Deinonychus (the dinosaur the Velociraptors more resemble in the JP franchise). A movie of Carnosaur was made in the wake of the Jurassic Park hype, with a largely different plot from the book. It should be noted that there's no evidence that Michael Crichton lifted ideas from Carnosaur, and before JP he had attempted to write a screenplay about a cloned Pterosaur that got shelved. But a curious coincidence noted by the Carnosaur author (John Brosnan) is that Spielberg's movie of JP has a scene of a dino chase in a museum, which occurred in the Carnosaur book (but not the JP book).

[@uamdbro]

I don’t think he was accused in this case?

[@TheDigitalApple]

Ya like jazz?

[@Semy_04]

Yes

[@gracekim1998]

Yeah

[@abdelali9279]

I think that Seinfeld's story still can be true, he came up with a pun and decided to make a whole movie out of it, this is the same man that made a whole episode of his show about just stading in the lobby of a Chinese Restaurant for half an hour, so it makes sense. So I don't think Spielberg and Seinfeld are covering a story on how they took a script and made it look like them, like in the movie Big Fat Liar, but there is still the possibility that an employee at Dreamworks took at least the trailer they were shown in Europe and decided to use it for visual inspiration and also het the basic plot, because honestly "Bee Movie" doesn't really tell you anything about what the story is supposed to be. And I am no lawyer myself but yeah, it is a shame Dreamworks didn't do the due diligence to make sure their work won't be similar enough to be called out by other people who have already pitched them a script, but I think if the Swedish got to sue Dreamworks it is possible that a court can rule out that Bee Movie's plot is different enough to Beebylon, I mean one decides to be a story of a bee suing humanity and the latter is about making a nature documentary about humanity, meanwhile the design aspects are superficial. But once again, I am no lawyer, unlike Barry B. Benson.

[@stevenwhitear]

Dreamworks called the movie too CHILDISH??

[@DrawtoonzStudio]

To be fair, their movies had a bit more of an adult tone back then.

[@Shnupbups]

You were on such a roll with the words in the intro starting with 'b'... and then said 'in jail' instead of 'behind bars'. Damn.

[@caramelcomplx9518]

What's this? A plagiarism lawsuit involving a film about bees? My BRIEFCASE full of BEES ought to a stop to that!

[@AJSSPACEPLACE]

All the films im aware of that feature Bees prominently, are exclusively animated films. Unless we’re counting things like nature documentaries. Bugs just aren’t a popular choice for the “talking animal” genre. At least not as main characters

[@jsmith3946]

there have been some killer bee horror movies

[@HaveanOreshnik]

Well jerry did come up with a show about nothing

[@ChaunceyGardener]

Proof that he has no ideas himself.

[@shortbreadhead]

Well 3:57 that says Executive producer- Abel Kjellstrom, Director- Christian Bergquist, Producer- Thomas Allercrantz (which I found has an IMDB page), hope that helps.

[@shortbreadhead]

I hadn't watched the rest of the video before writing this, I just hoped some of that could help

[@KasumiKenshirou]

It's worth noting that this isn't the first time a project involving Seinfeld was similar to another previous work. Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" show had already been done years earlier by actor Robert Llewellyn (who played Kryten on Red Dwarf) in his series Carpool. There are way more similarities here than with these two bee projects. And in a case where Seinfeld is the one making the accusation, once on Twitter he accused one of the Lego movies (I think Lego Batman) of ripping off the idea of Superman and Green Lantern not getting along from one of the credit card ads he did where Seinfeld appeared along with an animated version of Superman. This tweet would've been around the time the movie he was complaining about came out.

[@jsmith3946]

ya but there is a huge difference between the tow the person driving in Coffee was a talented and funny comedian while the uk one stared a unfunny hack who's comedic timing is so shitty that he couldn't even tell a simple why knock knock joke with out screwing it up also people driving around and talking ain't a original concept and has been done before carpool

[@TheEWFX29]

I think the show is more a concept of what young comedians do. Travel from show to show with each other in a car traveling, telling jokes and funny stories. Its just a memory of a earlier more innocent time of just guys traveling, having fun and starting careers. It like playing clubs for musicians. You have the comradery of young hungry artists traveling and experiencing life on the road. So this latter idea of traveling in cars being funny could be an idea of any comic or traveling entertainer. So though both ideas are similar its more of shared life experiences than just seeing a idea and taking it for your own. Both these guys had these experiences at the beginning of their careers and after some success went with the idea as a quick easy concept that people could understand and enjoy. Its not much more than that probably. More coincidence than anything malicious.

[@REDREDKRUVY4814]

It could just BEE a coincidence like Simba and Kimba. (YMS)

[@ninjasniperproductions4476]

No, Simba and Shakespeare. And the creatives admit this too.

[@screenwriterjohn]

Beyonce needs to sue. She invented Beehives!

[@sircasino614]

In the other footage it said B-Tv. I saw parts of the bee movie like a week or 2 ago, I think I remember them saying B-TV in their universe too.. which is kinda weird. They probably borrowed aspects.

[@Farm-Key]

DreamWorks stole my soul

[@G0TIMAN]

Wait. Im I wrong or there was some kind of reddit story about strange version of bee movie being shown to kids in primary schools?

[@redlikeroses3705]

Yeah! I was thinking this was gonna be about it too.

[@tb3411]

You aren't wrong. I remember hearing from it on a ShaiiValley video.

[@stevenwhitear]

That thumbnail is a bit much for a title that's an accusation, imo.

[@Nerdtendo6366]

But did Beebylon like jazz?

[@romarqable]

"Its impossible to read the names" i literally see the name Thomas Allenkrantz, Nicklas Rumokvist, Robert Asproth. No ones reached out to these people?

[@ninjasniperproductions4476]

Apparently, he can't read english, considering his ancestral heritage. How embarrassing.

[@ilkeryoldas]

They should have released Beebylon at the same time as Bee Movie and ride their wave

[@SimulatedGoat]

Ah yes, the movie where a woman has an affair with an insect.

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

@AllThingsLost I loved watching this, a well made video indeed! To be honest, I didn't dig that deep on the website, but about that photo depicting three people in bee costumes, I think those may have been the dudes I attempted to contact (2 film students, 1 producer), as the profile pictures looked like them (but they're older, of course). Also, a fact that (I think) few know about is that an earlier cut of Bee Movie (sadly, more lost media) featured a physical appearance of the Queen. Since the final product does not, Dreamworks decided to replace the tour guide (previously Dean Buzzwell) with the Queen's actress. Buzzwell was kept, but is slightly different in role now. This is more of just a piece of trivia and nothing that adds up to the similarities between Bee Movie and Beebylon, because bee nests must contain Queens to properly function. 13:19 True dat (the whole script is a copypasta!), but unfortunate because a large mass of the film crew I'm aware of are embarrassed at the participation of its production, which interferes with question-asking and documentation. P.S. I see you've included a quick clip of Dolbee and the TV juniors, only the sophisticated will have watched both. P.P.S. Any new search updates will be on my community tab.

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

B

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

E

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

E

[@Prowox]

For the credits at 3:50, this is what I could make out: Director Christian Bergquist Producer Thomas Allercrantz Written by Henrik Wallgren, Per U???us (with context Umerus) Music by Nicklas Rundkvist(not sure on letters 3-5) Voice and ? Pierre Botrous Assistant Director Jan Karlström Character ? Maria A????ova 3d animators Robert Asproth, Björn ? (with context Ringholm), Thomas Hermansson, ?, Mia Ljunggren ? Roger Ericsson (pretty unsure about this one) ? Peter Lindholm, Claes Lundquist/Lundqvist ? Compaq & ?

[@TheEerieMaster]

This makes my love-hate relationship for DreamWorks worst

[@tirzahroseroot]

I honestly hated this movie as a kid.

[@sirbodsworthrugglesbyiii964]

4:02 Some of those names can almost be made out. Towards the top right you have "THOMAS ALLERCRANTZ". Google results show he's a Swedish film producer who was active in the industry around this time. I think the 'Top Left-ish' credit is a director credit for: "CHRISTIAN BERGQUIST", but I'm not entirely sure about that one. I'm also maybe seeing "JAN KARLSTROM" "ROBERT ASPIRTOH" "ROGER ERICSON" and "NICKLAS RUMONVIST" in there. Keep in mind, a number of those are just best guesses, and I absolutely do NOT know Swedish (but maybe someday). Edit: Yeah, should have waited 10 seconds to make that comment. There's Christian Bergquist! Whoops.

[@ModwalletOFFICIAL]

Thank you. I could only make out one so thank you

[@stevenwhitear]

This is not lost media. Beebylon was only a trailer which we can see and was never a movie.

[@cybiinnie]

Lost media doesnt have to exist.

[@escaperoutebritish]

Nah, not even similar. I know how much it sucks to have something come out that's awfully similar to something you pitched.

[@EmeraldCityVideo]

You can't copyright, an idea, only its execution. It's why Disney couldn't sue Jeff Katzenberg over Antz, in spite of the fact that in that case, it was much clearer it was theft. The place where I think you're right is just that they didn't do their due dilligence, and left themselves open to unnecessary criticism and litigation. But I don't think it's likely anyone with real decision-making power was even cognizant of the Beebylon project.

[@Cri_Jackal]

If someone tells you a completely thought out idea for a movie, and you then produce thaf movie, you're unique execution of the idea would not protect you from the fact you outright copied it. This is the reason producers have to get permission of book writers to adapt their material, a movie adaptation of a book would absolutely be a "unique execution" of the ideas in the book, and they could even change all the character names for good measure, but they would still be liable to be sued, because using someone's ideas without credit is fraud. Situations like that are something companies in ALL field create contingencies to prevent, namely, the fact that anything you create while working for a company is automatically made their property, whether it's tech, engineering, movies, etc, THAT'S the reason that aspect of corporate industry exists, to protect them from lawsuits. The only reason a lawsuit wasn't able to be made over Antz or Bee Movie was because the needed information wasn't high profile or comprehensive enough.

[@AlexDown1]

Animals/Creatures discovering the human world, very common and popular trope playing with the idea of very small characters, very common and popular trope best to just make it bugs bees or ants already have a society of their own choose, ants already been done, twice bees make movie.

[@CredibleCommenter]

I’m not gonna lie, I had this video in my watch later and stopped watching when you fucked up your alliteration by missing the obvious “Does Barry B Belong Behind Bars?” and I legitimately don’t think I’m gonna finish it. If you can’t clear the low effort goals, I doubt you can clear the high ones.

[@HaveanOreshnik]

Bees can dance and fly cause everybody told them they couldn't AHHHH SHIT

[@ChrisP872]

It is tricky to know how much was stolen and how much was independently created with similar results. If you put bees into modern society trying to be like humans just about every creative person will make tons of overlaps.

[@holdingpattern245]

The Swedish studio's entire case is that Dreamworks was aware of Beebylon, even though it doesn't matter, it is not plagiarism to make a movie with similarities to another movie (a major plot point where bees learn about humans, a recurring joke about bees wearing bee suits), if anything Dreamworks should sue them for defamation. I would argue that Fraggle Rock is more similar to Bee Movie (the Doozers are tiny creatures who spend their whole lives working to create a sweet substance that Fraggles eat, in one episode the Fraggles are convinced to stop exploiting the Doozers by eating this substance and this results in an ecological disaster, the Fraggles are also generally unaware that Doozers can talk, and in one episode a rebellious Doozer named Cotterpin runs away from the other Doozers and befriends a Fraggle). Also, Fraggle Rock is more similar to Beebylon (the Fraggles are unaware of the human world, but there is a Fraggle named Travelling Matt who explores the human world and writes his discoveries about them on postcards which he sends back to Fraggle Rock). Maybe the owners of Fraggle Rock (Disney?) should sue them both for plagiarism.

[@PetProjects2011]

I do find it interesting that Beebylon started off as a live action series with people in costumes, before the suggestion to make it animated. And the early teaser trailers show Seinfeld and other actors in bug costumes, before someone suggests to them to make it animated.

[@gameboyjsa]

sorry but a movie about bees isn't that original and if jerry's wife really was keeping bees at one point to me it seems only natural that he came up with the idea himself

[@Zseason]

Always got confused when yanks referenced Dennis the menace as he looked nothing like I knew him, took me years to work out why

[@djhayman]

“Beebylon”? Should have called it “Babeelon”.

[@innerguardianXIII]

As a guy who notices lots of similarities in lots of things, I can safely call all this "coincidence". There's only so much you can do with the idea of Bees interacting with Humans and both productions/companies did all of them (Bee Movie did much more though). Beebylon did mockumentary with real life setting/footage and changing to human ways. Bee Movie did pun joke after pun joke after pun joke, a court case + consequences of a single Bees actions. No acting LIKE humans at all and in a goofy world in and of itself. You can't cry plagiarism with the usage of the same species. If that was true, ALL stories would be liable. I mean, are they go against "Maya the Bee"?

[@JakeEscapePS2]

I'd probably blame Katzenberg in this situation.

[@BestTimes8812]

The Dennis the Menace thing is crazy cus the two comics published only five days apart on the same year. This reminds me more of how "The Croods" was originally pitched by Aardman but after their deal from Dreamworks broke off, Dreamworks kept the rights to it. Aardman eventually going on to make "Early Man"

[@corncobjohnsonreal]

It's really not that special of an idea. We already had bug's Life, and people like bees, probably more than ants, even though biologically the two are remarkably similar

[@stevenwhitear]

"Looking closer into his post takes us to a website" (???) 4:05

[@genyakozlov1316]

That's just how it bee sometimes. You look too closely at a post, and you get magically warped to another website. Happens to the best of us.

[@aweirdwombat]

It sounds like if they stole it, they made it legally distinct, which is all anyone can really hope for. Aside from one or two shots and a few basic ideas, they seem different enough. I get why if it was stolen how that would suck but there's really nothing to be done since they're so different. I think what tends to happen is people might hear or see an idea somewhere and forget where it came from and unintentionally borrow a few aspects of it. Though this is assuming anyone at DreamWorks really saw it. It's also very likely it's just a coincidence.

[@bri6064]

While I’d love find a reason to clown on Jerry Seinfeld, I don’t think it’s plagiarism. Animated movies and shows featuring bugs were a Thing back in the 90s-00s (or, at least, I remember there being a whole bunch as a kid lol), and having humans involved in the story seems like an easy and obvious way to create conflict in the story I guess what I’m trying to say is, “animated movie about talking [insert wild-ish animals here], where the animals are introduced to human life” is a very natural idea to come to for a family movie (think Over the Hedge). The prospect of plagiarism would come in with more specific things, like the characters and how they react to the set up Maybe there’s more similarities that were left out or aren’t public knowledge, but they don’t seem similar…

[@CheeseyStuff]

Where was the clip from 12:19 to 12:23 from?

[@mightyfilm]

The worst thing here is the similarity between the fact they have both humans and bees in them. That's it. The whole thing. And I don't know how much sway a sanction of Dreamworks in Europe has over the greater American branch, but I severely doubt that main branch had any inkling that such a project existed. I just see two bitter animators whining that the studio would later make a big budget animated movie with the bare similarity of anthro bugs and humans and claim that they stole their crappy little TV show they turned into a CGI movie because they couldn't sell it either way. And while Seinfeld clearly came up with an OBVIOUS as hell pun and wanted someone to make a movie around it, it still has the concept of "what if bees stopped pollinating" (i.e. an environmental message) and the law suit courtroom scenes (not to mention the bee-stality plotline with Barry and the human woman). All I see out of Beebaylon is old home movies/stock footage of humans with CGI bees making commentary, like a backwards nature show. Oh. And that concept of animals or creatures observing and misunderstanding humans? That's Fraggle Rock. So yeah. Pretty freaking original idea they totally did NOT steal from Uncle Traveling Matt. And yes, Fraggle Rock had a Swedish dub. So I call bull on this one. Besides, it wasn't a Disney product. THAT they plagiarize from purposely and pettily.

[@multilad816]

Can you cover more lost comics and/or scrapped ready to air TV episodes like Law & Order SVU's Unstoppable

[@laserbeamlightning]

The irony of Bee Movie being about lawsuits lol

[@AbrasiousProductions]

the animation gave me flashbacks to The Reef (2006)

[@pptemplar5840]

As far as I can tell... the only similarity is bees interacting with humans... seems pretty open and shut, they have a like, 2 similarities and those similarities are honestly incredibly shallow. As for Antz and Bugs life, katzenberg literally left pixar with a significant amount of work and inside knowledge, they sniped an idea in an attempt to invalidate their biggest competitor. Yeah, they talked to people at DreamWorks, but honestly the movies aren't even really that similar conceptually, of course the movies were both 3D, almost every animated feature film released in the last decade and a half has been 3D, a movie like Antz doesn't really become more legally distinct if it was animated in 2D, and I don't think Bee Movie is any less distinct because it's 3D. Honestly, "They should try to make their own movie" sounds like a really reasonable response, of course they tried, but their pitch wasn't considered to be as profitable or appealing as Jerry riffing jokes off of a singular pun for an hour and a half, so I doubt we missed much.

[@12DAMDO]

"and posted a link that was never archived" this is ironic since the link itself was an archive lol

[@severedghost]

That same comparison at the end can be made about Antz. Dreamworks has a history of animal and bug society movies: Chicken Run, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over the hedge, and Flushed away all came before Bee Movie. And are all "Animal/Bug society" movies.

[@CyberWolfStudios]

I completely understand the swedish director upset, realistically it would have ended up as a meme just like B movie. If they release it now they could get meme fame.

[@ValerieTheBat]

The only time I've heard about Beebylon was a AniMat retrospective on DreamWorks way way way back but I swear this piece of media is absurdly obscure that I only heard about lawsuit and not the actual film that is claimed to be the first Bee Movie.

[@ValerieTheBat]

By the way, Bee Movie was actually in an another lawsuit by Beeceuticals who believe that they stole their slogan let "bees have a chance."

[@skidwardshlongington8025]

They put Jerry into a bee costume like a slap in the face

[@Hauntaku]

I know this may seem insane, but there is potentially a bootleg of the film out there in the world. It is the full movie under a different title and may be a part of a collection of different films.

[@Hauntaku]

I remember specifically the part in the film where the bees talk to the child

[@mahrlx]

So you're saying that you watched more scenes than the ones shown in the video??

[@DamplyDoo]

This movie is like a fever dream

[@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770]

Nah, no way. Jerry Seinfeld would never plagiarize a movie. He’s not that kind of guy.

[@themachomanrs]

13:27 You’re 100% right in your conclusion Mike. I would wager that they saw Seinfeld just had the pun for the name and said “Hey! We have an idea” and gave a loose description of Beebylon (without the more childish elements)

[@YourUncleBenis]

We got a new Kimba, boys!

[@HatsuneTku]

Yeah stuff like this happens all the time. Rich people and corporations really don't care about stealing from people because they're just too big for accusations to actually stick.

[@Gooby-boobbby]

And we know who made the better bee movie…

[@gracekim1998]

No one stole anything. You’re a sheep 🤦‍♀️

[@pixel__huh]

Fun drinking game: take a shot every time he says the letter b

[@keithmichael112]

this man came up with the idea for bee movie and immediately thought "hey, Stephen Spielberg should direct this". the hubris

[@KTSpeedruns]

How many ways can you really write a movie about the interactions between humans and bees?

[@davidanttila9305]

Haywood has a long history of stealing ideas that was pitched to them. Onky major difference is did DreamWorks have them sign an agreement to not take them to court if they decide to make a movie similar to the one they pitched.

[@stimkytheskunk3306]

I am Swedish and i might be able to continue the research

[@haveagooddaypod]

great video, never knew about this

[@Schwift3D]

3:56 - "Producer Thomas Allercrantz" lol wouldn't call that impossible to read. 1 quick Google check shows that's the actual name of the Swedish producer 🤙

[@killprecnt3702]

Still asking for a James Bond lost media video

[@questionblock8949]

I dont think bee movie is an idea anybody needs to steal lol