“”Bee Movie,”” the latest release from DreamWorks Animation, is, to quote a classic line from 1995’s “”Clueless,”” a “”full-on Monet.”” From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a total mess.

I say this because at first glance, it seems like “”Bee Movie”” is pretty much a guaranteed success: It’s from DreamWorks, which has replaced Disney as the new tour-de-force in animation (with the exception of Disney’s Pixar, of course), and it was produced and written by Jerry Seinfeld, one of the funniest comedians of the ’90s.

For a while, it seems like “”Bee Movie”” is going to fulfill your expectations: the animation is absolutely superb, with amazing coloring, flawless movement and uncannily realistic depictions of celebrities. Once you allow yourself to recover from the film’s overwhelming visual power, you realize there’s something that’s just not right about it: it’s entirely too unrealistic and, to be frank, it’s just plain weird.

Furthermore, DreamWorks’ trademark blending of adult and child content is way out of whack, with 90 percent of the humor coming from sexually related comments about how hot spiders are and how a character once met a cricket “”with crazy legs.””

But I suppose it’s the overall plot of “”Bee Movie”” that really weakens it. Seinfeld voices Barry B. Benson, a member of a hive in Central Park who yearns for something more than the repetitive honey-producing routine he must follow every day. One day he flies outside the hive and into a grocery store, where he discovers that the human race is cultivating honey (which is the bees’ only resource and the reason they must work their whole lives) for profit. Outraged, Barry decides to sue the human race.

Add a strange human-bee relationship with hints of “”bee-stiality,”” and the complete personification of bees as humans (they watch TV with “”Bee Larry King Live””), and the end result is a sense of perplexity as to what the point of all of it truly was.

Yet “”Bee Movie”” is not a complete failure as a movie. It is definitely entertaining, full of talented voice actors (Rip Torn, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock and John Goodman) and lots of laughs. Adults will laugh at the pop culture references and clever side comments – Barry refuses to eat a crumb offered to him, saying, “”I’m trying to lose a few micrograms.”” And the kids will laugh at the ridiculous humor, such as Barry being stuck on a tennis ball and hanging on for dear life as he flies through the air.

All things considered, “”Bee Movie”” isn’t really bad …it’s just wholly unsatisfying. It will leave you scratching your head and wondering why you didn’t see “”American Gangster”” instead. Even though you’ll laugh while watching it, the movie is completely forgettable and not worth the money.