• Plot Description
• Soundtrack
• Wallpapers
• Popularity
Release Date
• USA: Apr 28, 2006
BoxOffice: $18.8M
Official Website:
Akeelah and the Bee Website
MPAA Rating
Rated PG for some language.
Running Time
1 hour, 52 minutes
Country USA
Production Companies
Spelling Bee Productions Inc., 2929 Productions, Cinema Gypsy Productions, Lions Gate Films, Out of the Blue... Entertainment, Reactor Films, Starbucks Entertainment
Studio Lions Gate Films
More info on IMDb.com
Other Titles
• Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
|
Genre: Drama
Tagline: Changing the world... one word at a time.
Plot: 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).
More Plot Descriptions
 |
Behind the Scenes:
Read more about the production
| |
 Discussion forum for this movie
|
| |
...is a wonderful, well-made film that starts out shaky, but then quickly wins you over with its combination of heart and charm. Sure, it often tries too hard to tug at the heartstrings, but you'd have to be fairly cold and cynical not to eventually givein. 8/10--Edward Douglas (ComingSoon.net)
The audience for this slender effort is still in grade school with little new and different to recommend it for anyone older than, say, the age of 12. Anyone beyond that age will be checking their watches to see how much longer this thing will run. My recommendation is to rent the film’s I mentioned earlier – “Spellbound” for its honest look at a real national spell-off and “Bee Season” for a film that has, in its heart, a real love for words. Akeelah and the Bee” lacks both of these qualities. C--Robin and Laura Clifford
...is a small gem. It’s positive, gentle, and ultimately uplifting without ever making its audience feel overly manipulated. Or at least, no more manipulated that it’s willing to be. There’s some welcome steel to the story that keeps it from being a fairy tale, but doesn’t prevent it from being magical.  --Andrea Chase (Killer Movie Reviews)
|
...Later in the movie, that device is repeated, producing one of the happiest feelings I can remember having in a theater. Obviously, it's emotional propaganda. But it's just the kind of propaganda our children need.  --Wesley Morris (Boston Globe)
I-n-s-p-i-r-a-t-i-o-n-a-l.--Michael Rechtshaffen (Hollywod Reporter)
|
|
|
Movie Database
In Theaters
