GR-B039-1977

Die Biene Maja (Maya the Bee)

Video

VHS

German

No

Available

Appropriately enough, the story of Maya the Bee begins with her birth. She immediately stands out among the other bees as curious, creative, and enthusiastic. Her personality is also marked by a tendency to suggest ways of improving the way that things are done around the beehive. After spilling her bucket of honey, for example, Maya decides it would be a good idea to fashion some sort of a lid for it. Maya's explorations often expose her to certain dangers (spider webs, soda bottles, swatting horse tails) though she manages to navigate through them with the help of friends she meets along the way such as Flip the Grasshopper, Johann the Horsefly, and her fellow honeybee Willy. The story, as mentioned above, starts in the beehive. Afterwards, it moves to the world at large when Maya learns to fly. The last segment of the story focuses on Willy's adventures as a conscript in an ant army. Thematically, the film centers on the relationship between personal and group identity, childrens' interaction with (adult) authority, and the difference between hard work and slavish labor. Notes: The story of the small bee Maya begins in 1912 in Germany. Writer and traveler Waldemar Bonsels (1880-1952) wrote a book about the empire of insects. The main figure was a curious and rude bee that wanted to explore the world behind the walls of a beehive. Bonsels named her Maya and her stories appeared in type under the name "The Adventures of Maya the Honeybee" in Berlin. More than one million prints were sold in record time and Maya became the most popular fairy-tale for children. Stories of Maya were translated to more than 40 languages.. Color. Country: Austria.