Maya and the Golden Egg – Maya the Bee 3: The Golden Orb (2021)

Directed by: Noel Cleary | 80 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Vajèn van den Bosch, Samir Hassan, Giovanni Kemper

The originally German Maya de Bij has been a major television success for more than four decades. The lovely and slightly committed cartoon gives a colorful picture of insect life. The bees, with the Queen as a strong hand, rule over land, water and the sky. But dangers are everywhere. Militant ants, cunning spiders and vicious wasps are invariably lurking. The leading role in that playing field is for the youthful but brave Maya, who gets to know the world around her better in a kind of coming of age. Together with her shy boyfriend Willy, she ends up in all kinds of adventures that they bring to a successful conclusion with newly acquired knowledge.

With ‘Maya and the golden egg’ the bee friends, now under the flag of the Flemish Studio 100, have arrived at their second feature film. In this film, the friendship of the two main comrades is put to the test. When Maya and Willy unleash a pack of glow worms on the beehive a little too enthusiastically on the first day of spring, the Queen has no choice but to break up the ever-inseparable duo. From now on they will have to shell out their beans separately from each other. But when they get their hands on a golden egg containing the heir apparent of an ant colony, they decide to bring it back with their own hands.

A wild but playful and cheerful adventure is the result. Pursued by a gang of tree bugs, who are out for a territory war, they traverse a beautifully animated natural landscape. They meet a variety of other animals, from finicky aphids to giant robins. But above all, they learn wise lessons about friendship and the usefulness of working together. Although the chase scenes can be a bit creepy for the little ones, ‘Maya and the Golden Egg’ mainly provides carefree toddler and preschool fun.

A side note is that the wisest lessons are learned by the other animals. Maya and Willy’s actions are mainly plot-driven. There is some friction between the two during their journey, but in the end it doesn’t matter much. The humor, full of crazy slapstick action, and the songs often come from the secondary characters. As heroic as Maya, and to a lesser extent Willy, are, it also makes them a bit boring below the line.