According to all known laws of copyright, there is no way that MSCHF should be able to pirate Dreamworks' Bee Movie. MSCHF's plan is too big to get its fat little scheme off the ground. MSCHF's plot, of course, goes ahead anyway, because MSCHF doesn't care what humans think is impossible.
I hope you enjoyed that butchered revision of the Bee Movie script introduction, bee-cause if not, this MSCHF adventure ain't for you.
2007's Bee Movie remains such a resilient pop culture touchstone that MSCHF's decision to pirate the film over 15 years after its release hardly needs any justification. Well, except maybe for what exactly "pirate" means here.
See (bee?), MSCHF's not going to bootleg (bee-leg?) Bee Movie; at least, not in the conventional sense. Don't worry, no VPNs or torrent sites necessary.
MSCHF instead is crowdsourcing a hand-drawn, fully-traced version of Bee Movie. Yes, utilizing the digital tools that MSCHF provides on the Free Movie website, you can help painstakingly recreate all 65,520 frames of Bee Movie. Oh, yes, this project is called the Free Movie. MSCHF's wordplay is at least on the same level as the actual Bee Movie script.
MSCHF's DIY Bee Movie admittedly doesn't sound terribly dissimilar from creator-led animation collaborations, at first. Those DIY efforts, common on YouTube, would piece together similarly memetic movies — like Shrek, another certified Dreamworks classic — using intentionally mismatched artwork from a horde of participants.
However, these massive joint efforts and MSCHF's Free Movie differ in that MSCHF's toolset encourages users to simply trace over the Bee Movie frames. No artistic talent required: all you gotta do is copy.
The end result will likely still be a piecemeal endeavor, given the inherent distinctions in users' linework and color choices, but the effect ought to be convincing enough given that MSCHF is having everyone trace linework directly off of actual Bee Movie frames.
Even if Dreamworks comes in to shut this down this smugly smirking exquisite corpse, perhaps MSCHF will still manage to usher in a third (fourth?) era of Bee Movie memery.
Can I just pause here to remind everyone that the core plot of Bee Movie — a human woman leaves her husband to instead spend time with a Jerry Seinfeld-voiced bumblebee who plans to sue the entire human race over honey theft — is alone insane enough that this film ought to be remembered forever as a case study in How Not To Make a Motion Picture.
However, the deeply ironic memes are the primary reason that Bee Movie has cemented place in internet history.
Anyways, MSCHF has been so bee-sy recently with its big black boots, Kid Cudi co-signs, and teeny tiny handbags that you may have forgotten that legally spurious endeavors were once MSCHF's bread and butter.
Remember when MSCHF promised to use a certain heavily-copyrighted mouse in a future drop? What about when MSCHF sold Chick-fil-A sandwiches on Sunday? The entire Cease & Desist Grand Prix?
Finally, you can join in on MSCHF's long, grand tradition of baiting lawsuits. But, first, you've got to ask yourself one question: do ya like jazz? Well, do ya, punk?
