In the past several years, movies like "Shrek," "The Incredibles" and "Harry Potter" have proven that great children's movies can transcend their genre and be thoroughly embraced and enjoyed by audiences of all ages. "Akeelah and the Bee" upholds this tradition with a story that's sweet and simplistic enough to entertain any 5-year-old and funny and heartwarming enough to captivate all of the mothers, fathers and grandparents who brought the kids to see it.
The film's requisite spunky heroine is Akeelah Anderson, played by a luminous and capable Keke Palmer ("Madea's Family Reunion"). Eleven-year-old Akeelah manages to be one of the brightest students at her crumbling South Los Angeles high school while skipping most of her classes at the same time. When the school principal learns that Akeelah has never missed a word on her spelling tests, he convinces her to compete in the school spelling bee, which she wins without breaking a sweat. Akeelah soon enters the spelling bee big leagues and finds a coach in the reclusive Dr. Larabee, played by a monotone yet compelling Laurence Fishburne.
The film is, admittedly, chock full of clichés. Akeelah lives with her tough single mother played by a consistently stern Angela Bassett, her gangbanging older brother and teenage-mother sister in a neighborhood where the sounds of barking dogs, hovering helicopters and gunshots are commonplace. Her saintly father has been killed in a random shooting several years earlier, and Akeelah's school has to buy her an outfit for the regional spelling bee because her family can't afford one. The film consistently reminds the audience that in the surprisingly cutthroat world of spelling bees, Akeelah is a wrong-side-of-the-tracks kind of girl.
Of course, a great underdog story is what the best kids' movies are made of ("Mighty Ducks," anyone?) and contrasting Akeelah with the wealthy, well-trained Beverly Hills squad of spellers, especially the brilliant, stuck up, spelling wunderkind Dylan, only makes her more endearing to an already hooked audience. What makes us love Akeelah even more is that she not only holds her own against these rich kids, but befriends them. Her bond is especially strong with Javier, played by a hilarious and scene-stealing J.R. Villarreal.
While the movie admittedly contains some stereotypes, it steers clear of the formulaic "rising from of the ghetto" plotline. Rather, one of the most touching aspects of the story is how everyone in Akeelah's community — from the mailman to the local hoodlums — come together to help her attain her dream of winning the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee. Akeelah doesn't have to leave the ghetto to prepare herself for the competition; instead, her community rallies around her. Her goal becomes their goal, and in helping Akeelah better herself, the community betters itself, too. Slightly hokey? You bet. Inspiring and heartwarming? Oh yeah.
Anyone who's still unconvinced that a children's movie is worth their time should consider the caliber of the film's actors. Though most of the children are unknowns, all of them — but particularly Palmer, Villarreal and Sahara Garey, who plays Akeelah's best friend, Georgia — bring a humor and insight that is beyond their years. Heavy hitter Bassett as Akeelah's mother took a role that could quite easily have been stagnantly one-dimensional and turned it into a stirring example of tender, conflicted parental love. Fishburne fills the stern, dignified and secretly heartbroken role of Akeelah's mentor with elegant subtlety.
"Akeelah and the Bee" is a darling, uplifting film that ends with a touching surprise sure to make everyone in the theater simultaneously tear up and cheer. The movie caused the audience to erupt in spontaneous applause at its end, and inspired both small children and two admittedly sentimental college students to walk out of the theater saying, "I looooved that movie."
So, is "Akeelah and the Bee" worth seeing? The answer is simple. Y-E-S.
Rating: 4 out of 5
