Die Biene Maja – Die Honigspiele (Maya the Bee: The Honey Games) 
Germany/Australia
2018
Opening 1 Mar 2018
Directed by:
Noel Cleary, Sergio Delfino, Alexs Stadermann
Writing credits:
Noel Cleary, Fin Edquist, Kevin Peaty, Alexs Stadermann
Principal actors:
Theresa Zertani, Jan Delay, Andrea Sawatzki, Uwe Ochsenknecht
Maya enjoys happy days in her hive until Queen Bee Beatrice receives a demand from her sister, Empress Bee Katherine in Buzztropolis (Summtropolis). Katherine wants half of their yearly honey harvest to feed the athletes at the annual Great Honey Games. But these bees barely have enough for themselves and they weren’t even invited to participate in the games. Maya travels to Buzztropolis with her friend Willi; they will be allowed to participate in the games, but if they lose, then they must relinquish all of their honey. No problem: Maya expects to win! That is, until she collects the rest of her team: Luna the spider, Caruso the bug, Fussel the cockroach, as well as Eddy and Freddy, both ants. None are in any kind of shape to achieve positive results in a four-day, sport competition between five teams. The biggest opposition will come from Violette and her team of cheeky girl bees. She is the daughter of Katherine’s right-hand man, Count Bee-sting the Third, who manages the competition and expects his daughter to bring honor to his hive.
In this wonderful film we experience human frailties: pride, ambition, failure, mistrust, ego, friendship, etc., all in a wonderful plot development which will appeal to every age. Maya has entertained at least four generations around the world since 1912, when German author Waldemar Bonsels published his book: Maya the Bee (Die Biene Maja). Since then it has been translated into 40 languages and reproduced for television, comics, films, theater, as well as a musical. Here we have director Alexs Stadermann’s second Maya film. His first one, die Biene Maja – Kino film (The Maya Bee Movie) came out in 2014. Germany and Australia cooperated to realize both of his films, which guarantee that they will definitely be available in both German and English. (Becky Tan)
