The story is centered on the sudden disappearance of honey bees from beehives around the world, caused by the poorly understood phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder or CCD.

[5] Filmstar called Vanishing of the Bees "The most important documentary film since An Inconvenient Truth.

And Stuart McGurk of The Sunday Times wrote that while the "subject is serious", and this film was "well intentioned and urgent", it was "let down by hammy narration, [and] a made-for-TV budget".

[6] Philip French of The Observer called it a "serious, didactic, rather rambling documentary [that] features some good, decent people".

He added that "The blame falls principally on pesticides (which began when chemical warfare techniques were switched to farming), monoculture (ie, the widespread specialisation in single crops), genetic engineering and the world's changing landscape.