Bee Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Columbus 81 Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner and written by Jerry Seinfeld, Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin, it stars the voices of Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger. The film centers on Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), an anthropomorphic honey bee who tries to sue the human race for exploiting bees after learning from his new florist friend Vanessa Bloome (Zellweger) that humans sell and consume honey.

Bee Movie premiered in New York City on October 25, 2007, and was released in theaters in the United States on November 2. It grossed $293.5 million worldwide on a budget of $150 million. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its humor and voice cast but criticized its plot and lack of originality. Nevertheless, it has since gained a cult following, partly driven by internet memes of the film shared on social media, which most often lampoon its surreal premise, script and celebrity cameos.

Barry B. Benson, an idealistic paleolithic honey bee who has the ability to talk to humans, has recently graduated from college and is about to enter the hive's honey-making workforce, Honex Industries, with his best friend, Adam Flayman. Barry is initially excited, but his ambitious, insubordinate attitude emerges upon discovering that his choice of job will never change once picked. Later, the two bees run into a group of Pollen Jocks, bees who collect pollen from flowers outside the hive, and they offer to take Barry with them if he is "bee enough". While on his first pollen-gathering expedition in New York City, Barry gets lost in the rain, and ends up on the apartment of a human florist named Vanessa Bloome. Upon noticing Barry, Vanessa's boyfriend Ken attempts to kill him, but Vanessa gently catches and releases Barry outside, saving his life.

Barry later returns to express his gratitude to Vanessa, breaking the sacred law that bees are not to communicate with humans. Barry and Vanessa develop a close friendship, bordering on attraction, and spend time together. When he and Vanessa are in a grocery store, Barry discovers that the humans have been stealing and eating the bees' honey for centuries. He decides to journey to Honey Farms, which supplies the grocery store with its honey. Incredulous at the poor treatment of the bees in the hives, including the use of bee smokers to incapacitate colonies, Barry decides to sue the human race to put an end to exploitation of the bees, with Vanessa agreeing to help.

Barry's mission attracts wide attention from bees and humans alike, with countless spectators attending the trial. Although Barry is up against tough defense attorney Layton T. Montgomery, the trial's first day goes well. That evening, Barry is having dinner with Vanessa when Ken shows up. Vanessa leaves the room, and Ken expresses to Barry that he hates the pair spending time together. When Barry leaves to use the restroom, Ken ambushes and attempts to murder him, only for Vanessa to intervene and break up with Ken. The second day at the trial, Montgomery unleashes an unrepentant character assassination against the bees, leading a deeply offended Adam to sting him. Montgomery immediately exaggerates the stinging to make himself seem the victim of an assault while simultaneously tarnishing Adam. Adam's actions jeopardize the bees' credibility and his life, though he recovers in a hospital with a small, plastic sword as a replacement stinger. The third day, Barry wins the trial by exposing the jury to the torturous treatment of bees, preventing humans from stealing honey from bees ever again. Having lost the trial, Montgomery cryptically warns Barry that a negative shift of nature is imminent.

Human-obtained honey being returned in overload to the hives leads to Honex stopping honey production and all bees, including the vitally important Pollen Jocks, put out of a job, and all the world's flowers begin to die out without any pollination. Before long, the last remaining flowers on Earth are being stockpiled in Pasadena, California, intended for the last Tournament of Roses Parade. Barry and Vanessa travel to the parade and steal a float, which they load onto a plane. They hope to bring the flowers to the bees so they can re-pollinate the world's last remaining flowers. When the plane's captain explains that the flight will be delayed due to bad weather, Barry attempts to talk to the pilots, only for them to knock each other out while attempting to kill Barry. With help from Barry and the bees from Barry's hive, Vanessa lands the plane safely.

Barry becomes a member of the Pollen Jocks, and they fly off to a flower patch. Armed with the pollen of the last flowers, Barry and the Pollen Jocks reverse the damage and save the world's plants, restarting the bees' honey production. Later on, Barry runs a law firm at Vanessa's flower shop titled "Insects at Law", which handles disputes between animals and humans. While selling flowers to customers, Vanessa offers certain brands of honey that are "bee-approved".

The development of Bee Movie began in 2003, when Steven Spielberg approached DreamWorks Animation CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg after Jerry Seinfeld asked him to make an animated film featuring insects. Seinfeld spent a week in Los Angeles working on it. Teleconferencing system HP Halo was installed in Seinfeld's office in New York, enabling him to work on the film and interact between coasts. Seinfeld said he set the film in New York because it was "the Tigris and Euphrates of comedy", and Katzenberg was the main reason for making the film. The budget was approximately $150 million. Spielberg appeared in two live-action trailers for this film in November 2006 and early 2007 where he interacted with Seinfeld, who wore a bee costume. Using these trailers as a basis, promotional live-action short skits surrounding the production of the movie, branded as Bee Movie TV Juniors, would air on NBC during their Fall primetime lineup.