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 and The Golden Orb in 2021.
Plot
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's too late.
Universum Film distributed all German rights of the film.[3][1] 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.[10][5] The film was produced in association with Flying Bark Productions and the channel ZDF.[11][12] This film was Coco Jack Gillies' film debut, voicing the role of Maya. Gillies was 9 years old at the time of production.[5][9]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 47% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.[13]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.[14]
Frank Hatherley from Screen Daily stated that "this merry movie is for young children, mainly girls (note that this is an educated opinion): step aside, Dora the Explorer!" with vivid colours and plenty of unthreatening action. He also praised Coco Jack Gillies' performance as Maya.[5] Peter Debruge of Variety felt that the film was "innocuous and uninspired as preschool animation gets" and criticised the film's character designs as "rudimentary at best". However, he considered the film 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 insects outside of her beehive home. Debruge would later note that as one of Shout! Factory's catalogue titles, "it should do far better bzzness [in the North American market]."[15]
Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times also questioned the film's dialogue and ending scenes. He later said the film "embodies the kind of self-consciously uplifting treacle some adults insist kids want."[16] In his review 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.[17]
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