Akeelah and the Bee (2006)
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The story
Eleven-year-old Akeelah Anderson, a spelling enthusiast living in South Los Angeles, is encouraged by her principal to enter the Crenshaw Spelling Bee. After winning, she catches the attention of visiting professor Dr. Joshua Larabee, who recognizes her talent for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. However, their relationship is strained by disagreements over her use of African American Vernacular English. Akeelah eventually befriends a rival speller and begins traveling to a different middle school to join a spelling club, leading to a conflict with her mother who fears the consequences of Akeelah's independent pursuit of the competition.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Akeelah Anderson, an 11-year-old from South Los Angeles, enters the Crenshaw Spelling Bee after being threatened with detention. She wins and attracts the attention of Dr. Joshua Larabee, a visiting professor. Despite initial friction over her dialect, Larabee eventually agrees to coach her. Akeelah also joins a spelling club at a nearby school, meeting rival Dylan Chiu and friend Javier Mendez. When her mother, Tanya, discovers Akeelah's secret travels and forbids her from competing, Akeelah forges her father's signature to continue. After a series of events at the state bee where Tanya discovers the truth and initially stops her, Akeelah is allowed to continue and advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As the national competition nears, Larabee resigns as her coach, leaving Akeelah feeling abandoned. She recruits her community to help her study. At the national bee, the competition narrows to Akeelah and Dylan. After Dylan's father pressures him to win, Akeelah intentionally misspells a word to help him, but Dylan refuses to play along. They both intentionally misspell the same word to ensure a fair fight, eventually spelling all remaining words correctly to be declared co-champions.
- First release year
- 2006
- Runtime (minutes)
- 112
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Doug Atchison
- Writers
- Doug Atchison · writer
- Cast and characters
- Laurence Fishburne · Dr. Joshua Larabee; Angela Bassett · Tanya Anderson; Keke Palmer · Akeelah Anderson; Curtis Armstrong · Bob Welch; J. R. Villarreal · Javier Mendez; Sean Michael Afable · Dylan Chiu; Sahara Garey · Georgia Carver; Erica Hubbard · Kiana
- Genres
- drama
- Themes
- overcoming obstacles; community; self-esteem; stigma; educational system; race and racism; class and classism
- Premise and plot tags
- underdog story; coming-of-age; sports movie; educational
- Reception
- The film was positively received by critics and audiences, with praise for its storyline, cast, and Keke Palmer's performance. It was noted for avoiding stereotypes, though some critics found the story formulaic and were critical of the portrayal of Asian-American characters.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 86% · review count: 130; Metacritic · score: 72 · scale: 100 · review count: 30
- Awards and nominations
- NAACP Image Award · Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture · win; NAACP Image Award · Outstanding Writing in a Feature Film/Television Movie – Comedy or Drama · win
- Production trivia
- The film was the first DVD offered for sale at Starbucks.; The film was promoted by Starbucks with a campaign involving spelling-related trivia games on cardboard cup sleeves.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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