Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) and Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) in Bee Movie Courtesy of DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

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What does a multi-award-winning comedian — once ranked by Forbes as the highest earning celebrity in the world — do when he becomes restless with doing stand-up and adding to his Porsche collection? He makes a movie about bees.

Until now, insect representation in the animation world has been pretty well dominated by ants and grasshoppers, with A Bug's Life, Antz, and even Pinocchio's iconic Jiminy Cricket, but what of the industrious bee? Creating a Manhattan-like environment in the bee realm was the idea behind Bee Movie, Dreamworks' big-budget animation feature developed and produced by television impresario Jerry Seinfeld.

"From what I have seen in documentaries, [bee hives] are crowded, and bees are busy, and they live one on top of each other. This is like where I live, you know," says New York-based Seinfeld, best known for his long-running sitcom, a fictionalized version of his own life that he co-created, wrote, and executive produced. "You can't put a camera inside a beehive. But now we have. And you go down the street, and you see their buildings, and you see their cars and their buses. So we had to create this entire environment, and then we had [to make] the human world, too. And it was kind of a new thing to create two complete universes and then [to] have them collide. Most of these movies either stay in the animal world or the human world."

Audiences follow Barry B. Benson (voiced by Seinfeld), a young and adventurous bee graduate, as he navigates New Hive City, where every other worker takes a job at Honex producing honey. Then Barry hitches a ride out of the constrictive hive (to the beat of George Michael's "Freedom") into a world where he has room to move and where he also faces new dangers — from speeding tennis balls to clear panes of window glass. But when a lovely human florist named Vanessa (voiced by Renée Zellweger) comes to his rescue, he breaks one of the cardinal rules of bee law and speaks to a human being.

Adam Flayman (Matthew Broderick) and Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld) in Bee Movie Courtesy of DreamWorks Animation L.L.C.

"There is no real romance in the movie," Seinfeld says. "He is love-struck with Vanessa because she saved his life. And he was always taught that humans kill bees. That is all they know. And here comes this beautiful woman that saves him, so he falls for her. But, of course, it can't go anywhere."

Barry's world is further complicated when, during a chance flight through a grocery store, he uncovers perhaps the greatest injustice against bees: Humans are stealing the hard-working bees' honey and selling it for money on store shelves. The outraged and indignant rebel insect decides to sue the human race. The actor concedes that the film bears similarities to the character he played in Seinfeld, but notes that Barry is a little sweeter: "He is younger and a little more innocent. He is not cynical, whereas the character on the show was cynical." The film, however, still displays the Seinfeld hallmarks: "If I didn't tell you I made it, you would guess it — just the kind of jokes that we do. But nothing edgy like the TV series had. This movie is for all ages."