Akeelah and the Bee

"You know that feeling where no matter what you do or where you go you just don't fit in? Cause that's how I feel all the time." Akeelah Anderson

Have you ever watched movie titled “Akeelah and the Bee” before? This movie is just adorable and awesome. The movie itself tells about an eleven years old student named Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) who tried to win the Script National Spelling Bee in Washington DC.

Akeelah was a student in Crenshaw Middle School, South Los Angeles. She was brilliant in spelling words, but not confident enough to show it. The conflict was her mother (Angela Bassett) did not support her to do the bee until Akeelah’s spelling couch, Mr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne) assured her mother that she could do it. When everything ran well and she became famous all around Los Angeles, Akeelah got frustrated. Everyone in her neighborhood expected her to win, whereas her best friend, Georgia (Sahara Garey) and Dr. Larabee were ignoring her. There, her mother became someone who support and tell her that she might have 50.000 couches, starting from her. Finally, she made it. She won the National Spelling Bee.

Another cast was Curtis Amstrong as Mr. Welch who ask Akeelah to join the competition and also introduce Dr. Larabee to her. There were also Dylan (Sean Michael Afable) and Javier (J.R. Villareal) as her competitors in the spelling bee. Dylan was a cocky boy who disparaged Akeelah, but at the final battle they became friend and supporting each other. On the other side, Javier was a confident, funny, and cute boy who has become friend with Akeelah since the first they met at district level of spelling bee.

The thing that I like from this movie is that the all characters come from different ethnic. Akeelah was an Afro-American, whereas Javier was Latin-American boy and Dylan was Chinese boy. There was also Mr. Welch, a white-American person. There are also many ethnics in the national spelling bee, from the Africa to America. So, I think this is good for people who watch this movie that different ethnic or nationality does not mean fight, but also brotherhood.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”. By Marianne Williamson

This movie told us not to stop believing in your ability, your strength, and yourself. You can do everything you want as long as you work hard and of course believe in yourself.

A must-watched movie.

“You know that feeling? Where everything feels right, where you don’t have to worry about tomorrow or yesterday, but you feel safe, and know you’ve done the best you can. There’s the word for that feeling. It’s called L-O-V-E.” Akeelah Anderson

The casts: