Summary
Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She is a smart girl, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah decides to participate in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from Dr. Larabee, an English professor, for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with someone to rally around and be proud of. First Akeelah has to overcome her insecurities, her distracting home life, and the knowledge that there is a field of more experienced and privileged fellow spellers.Additional Information
| Subjects |
Spelling bees
-- Drama.
School children -- California -- Los Angeles -- Drama. Self-esteem in children -- California -- Los Angeles -- Drama. Melodrama, American. Feature films. Children's films. Fiction films. Video recordings for the hearing impaired. |
| Publisher | Santa Monica, Calif. :Lions Gate Home Entertainment,2006 |
| Edition | Full screen. |
| Contributors |
Fishburne, Laurence,
III, 1961- producer. Ganis, Sid, producer. Hult, Nancy, producer. Llewelyn, Daniel, producer. Romersa, Michael, producer. Atchison, Doug, screenwriter, director. Palmer, Keke, actor. Bassett, Angela, actor. Armstrong, Curtis, actor. Zigman, Aaron, composer. Lions Gate Films (Santa Monica, Calif.), presenter. 2929 Productions (Firm), presenter. Starbucks Entertainment (Firm), presenter. Out of the Blue Entertainment (Firm), production company. Reactor Films, production company. Cinema Gypsy Productions, production company. Lions Gate Home Entertainment, publisher. |
| Participants/Performers |
Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Curtis Armstrong. |
| Other Contributors |
Director of photography, M. David Mullen ; editor, Glenn Farr ; music by, Aaron Zigman. |
| Audience |
MPAA rating: PG; for some language. |
| Language |
English Spanish In English, with optional English or Spanish subtitles; closed-captioned. |
| Notes |
Title from container. Special features: Making of 'Akeelah and the bee'; Two peas in a pod; Inside the mind of Akeelah; Keke Palmer "All My Girlz' music video; gag reel; deleted scenes. |
| System Details |
DVD; region 1; full screen (1.33:1) presentation; Dolby digital 5.1 surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. |
| Description |
1 videodisc (approximately 112 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. |
| Other | Classic View |