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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Digital Stereo, Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Trailers, Gag Reel, English, Spanish Subtitled
Akeelah & The Bee is the inspirational story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), an eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne); her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah's aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and, in turn, unites her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.
"Two thumbs way up." Ebert & Roeper
"A sweet-natured, immensely likable family film" Jim Ridley, Dallas Observer
"...this feel-gooder revels in its hip-to-be-square hyperliteracy..." Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly
Editor's Note
Following in the fine tradition of inspiring inner-city underdog tales like STAND AND DELIVER, and TAKE THE LEAD, Doug Atchison's AKEELAH AND THE BEE is a story of overcoming odds that never descends into empty formula. The narrative centers around the character of Akeelah (Keke Palmer, in a star-making performance), a charming yet insecure 11 year old girl from Los Angeles' gang-ridden South Central district. Upon flipping channels after school one day, she lands on ESPN's coverage of the National Spelling Bee. Having recently become aware of her innate talent in this area, Akeelah cannot help but fantasize about the prospect of being a star of the bee circuit. The tragic problem -- intelligence of this kind is not valued in her community, where skills of athleticism and rapping are coveted far more than school smarts. Though Akeelah attempts to hide her academic acuity behind a rebellious attitude, she cannot resist the temptation to enter her school's spelling bee, at which her stellar performance attracts the attention of her idealistic principal, who pairs her with a mentor, a former professor named Joshua Larabee (the always riveting Laurence Fishburne, who re-embodies the wise iconoclast character he played so well in the chess movie SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER). Meanwhile, Akeelah's strong, practical mother, (played by Angela Bassett, who worked with Fishburne on the Tina Turner biopic WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?) while always supportive of her talented daughter, does not necessarily see the point of spending such time and energy on what will likely amount to a fleeting hobby. Perhaps taking its cue from the surprising popularity of Jeffrey Blitz's quirky documentary SPELLBOUND (2002), which explored spelling prodigies from diverse classes, races, and geographic locations, this drama makes what could be a narrow niche into a universal tale of triumph over adversity.
| Features | Making of Akeelah and the Bee | | Doug and Keke: Two Peas in a Pod Featurette | | Inside the Mind of Akeelah Featurette | | Gag Reel | | Deleted Scenes | | Trailers | | Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: English Dolby Digital (5.1); Dolby Digital Stereo | | Subtitles: English, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Lions Gate |
| Release Date: 1/5/2010 |
| Running Time: 112 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 19596 | | UPC: 00031398195962 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[T]his feel-gooder revels in its hip-to-be-square hyperliteracy, and neatly exceeds its own PSA-ness..." -- Grade: B 04/28/2006 p.118New York Times
"[A]n underdog story that manages to inspire without being sappy." 04/28/2006 p.E20 USA Today
"Palmer is a natural....There's nothing cynical about Akeelah's story of courage and determination." 04/28/2006 p.8E Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "You'll have a lump in your throat during this heart-tugger..." 08/01/2006 p.32 Sight and Sound
"AKEELAH AND THE BEE is most successful in the way it generates tension during the spelling-bee scenes." 09/01/2006 p.44 Variety 9 of 10
That seemingly inexhaustible new movie subgenre, the spelling bee drama, receives its most conventionally uplifting treatment yet in "Akeelah and the Bee." Framed around the relationship between an underdog word whiz and her tough-lovin' coach, this earnest weepie plays like "The Karate Kid" with a pro-literacy agenda, pushing all the right emotional buttons yet hitting quite a few wrong ones in the process. Overly calculated yet undeniably potent crowd-pleasing elements...Well-lensed in and around Los Angeles by M. David Mullen, with some occasional if conspicuous handheld camerawork...Aaron Zigman's musical score offers conventional but relatively discreet support. - Justin Chang
Reel.com 8 of 10
Spelling is hot. In the popular imagination, at least, if not necessarily in reality, kids who can master the intricacies of the English language are superstars. The 2002 documentary Spellbound followed teenagers on the way to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., and it was a box-office hit and an Academy Award Nominee. In 2005, The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee racked up six Tony nominations, including Best Musical, winning another two awards. Last fall, David Siegel and Scott McGehee brought Myla Goldberg's bestselling Bee Season to the big screen. Akeelah and the Bee, an engaging story of a little girl who learns to dream big, is the latest drama hoping to spell its way to success. - Pam Grady
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