It’s funny to think about how much cartoons, or more specifically children’s movies, have changed in the last decade or so. Of course, when I play the childhood “card,” images of glass slippers and wise-cracking genies dance through our heads, essentially extensions of the same tales we were already being told at bedtime.

That’s all we had.

But after Toy Story arrived in theaters, something changed. And with the advent of computer-generated films, so too came modern and mature humor. In the next few years, movies like Antz would challenge the nature of the capitalist structure, and Shrek would be offering us lessons about morality in a world where, yes, not everyone looks the same.

Now that the hype has died down, many animated films have found their mature grooves, and Bee Movie is one of those films.

The movies centers upon the life of Barry (Jerry Seinfeld), a bee living in a hive in Central Park. Barry realizes he is doomed to spend the rest of his life in a repetitive, over-specialized job refining honey.

He leaves the hive in search of purpose and is saved from near-squashing by florist Venessa (Renee Zellweger, Chicago), with whom Barry is instantly enamored. He decides to break the forbidden bee law and make verbal contact with her, and the two hit it off (only in a movie, kids).

But when Barry realizes human beings are kidnapping and gassing his fellow bees to extract precious honey for their own diabolical ends, he does what any individualistic, red-blooded bee in love with a woman whose weight, by comparison, is that of Arkansas — he sues the human race.

Hilarity ensues.

First off, does the story sound a little strange to you? Well, it is. Really, really strange. The trial alone has got its share of odd moments, ranging from the honey industry’s lawyer Layton Montgomery (John Goodman, Monsters, Inc.) trying to anger one of Barry’s friends, Adam (Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), into stinging him in the rear, to Barry calling to the stand the honey industry’s poster boy Ray Liotta, as well as Sting himself, just to get in a few extra bee jokes.

For parents out there, as well as those wary of the animated film fare, fear not — the movie is pretty damn funny at times. Sure, there are more than a few moments where it’s clear that the jokes are for the younger stock of the audience, but by and large, they balance out the humor so that all can enjoy it.

However, they do squeeze in a joke about Larry King being Jewish and another about bees being oppressed by the white man, which causes the honey industry’s black lawyer to move his chair slightly farther away from the rest of his colleagues. It’s no Shrek, but if Shrek 3 proved anything, neither is Shrek 3.

The cast is mostly a strong set, though when I had heard Jerry Seinfeld was going to be playing the lead role, I was honestly a little more excited about the film. Seinfeld hasn’t been known to do a lot of movies and certainly not any with this much exposure and commercial representation.

So, I had it in my mind that this would be a special role specifically tailored to the comedian, but besides some of the jokes on Hollywood and the occasional freak-out moment, this role felt like it could have been played by any number of actors. Don’t get me wrong, Seinfeld certainly takes the role with style and flare, offering a well-above-average performance, but it just seemed like it could have been more.

The movie gets points from me simply for the uniquity of many of its concepts, as well as for digital animation quality and the many varieties of humor it was able to engage. But it’s not a movie that warrants repeat viewings, which is my criterion for all movies, especially ones that have to compete in the same genre as Shrek — which I have seen more times than need be said out loud.

It’s fun; you will laugh. I know I did, quite often and occasionally, at great length. Go out and see it for some laughs and gain a few more jokes to quote back to friends and family.