Maya the Bee 2: The Honey Games

This so-so follow-up to 2014’s computer-animated Maya the Bee seems more like a platform for encouraging kids to buy video games than a story with whole-cloth integrity. Once again, eternally positive and hopeful bee girl Maya (voiced by Coco Jack Gillies) shakes up the insect world when she implores a bee empress (Marney McQueen)—the hardhearted sister of the queen (Justine Clarke) of Maya’s hive—not to demand half of the winter food that is stored for the colony. The best the empress will do is pronounce the arrival of competitive games between insect colonies; if Maya’s team wins, they can keep all their honey. Much of the film becomes a sequence of games, from dodgeball to a team climbing exercise. Maya’s friend Willi (Benson Jack Anthony) offers comic relief as a swooning doofus infatuated with the mean-girl bee who is trying to sabotage Maya’s plans. The animation here is quite pleasing—with colorful bugs and blooming spring flowers—but without a substantive story, this sequel is a disappointment. Optional. (T. Keogh)