- In one scene, the main character bee, Barry, says "Gonna go drain the stinger" or something along those lines. That's creepy enough. But it gets worse when the other bee stings the fat guy in the courtroom. When Mr. Main Character Bee asks him what it was like to sting someone, he answers: "It was like your adrenaline pumping like crazy, and then... ecstasy." Considering that fact that stingers had ALREADY been hinted at as being something... (ahem) more than stingers, this just gets even creepier. Plus, he stung that dude in the BUTT.
- ...aren't bees supposed to die after they sting someone?
- That's the joke. It's supposed to be a mixture of the phrase "gonna drain the x" (x being a reference to pee), and the stuff the stinger is draining is their life.
- Actually, the reason he didn't die was because they replaced it with a cocktail sword before it was too late.
- They're supposed to be female, too, so don't worry too much about it.
- ...aren't bees supposed to die after they sting someone?
- Near the end of the movie, a large amount of bees form a black-and-yellow target for Barry to land the plane on. One can only imagine how many bees were crushed by the plane's wheels...
- Actually, if you look closely, you can see the bees move out of the way of the landing gear before they touch the ground. So don't worry.
- This might not entirely fall under Fridge since its blatantly pointed out in the movie (along with "the evils of humanity" being slightly exaggerated) but in-universe at least bees are sentient world wide, and either raised in captivity constantly being drugged for their honey (kept bees) or the majority of a colony being to afraid to leave the hive for fear of getting swatted or stepped on, the amount of abuse Barry goes through throughout the film as well any hit hard enough to do serious damage would likely have them suffer a slow, agonizing death.
- Barry sues humanity, and the bees are no longer enslaved, yay! ...Except that was solely an American court - which means bees across the world are still being enslaved, drugged, kept on honey farms, and forced to spend their entire lives creating honey.
- Some Nightmare Retardant: The writers didn't put that much thought into the movie, so they really could have sued "the entire human race", and not just America. Meaning that the rest of Beemanity is probably safe.
- At the end, a cow comes into Barry's law firm and complains of being exploited for her milk, just as with bees and their honey prior to Barry's lawsuit. Imagine the look on her face when she finds out about hamburgers and leather and so forth. Plus if cows are sapient, then what of pigs, chickens, or other farm animals that get slaughtered by the millions for food or clothing or so forth?
Fridge Brilliance
- It has been pointed out that almost all the male bees have "buzz" cuts. Also if you take note of all the female bees' hair, they also tend to have the same 50's hairstyle which was commonly known as... a beehive.
- Given that Barry is so confused by a human window, but bee cars appear to have glass in front of them, it seems odd that he wouldn't get what a window is. However, considering the usual usage for windows (keeping out bugs and cold weather), it would make sense that bees wouldn't be used to there being glass in their windows. The hive would presumably keep them at a good temperature no matter what, and the bees are bugs themselves, so there's nothing to keep out.
- It's a very quick shot, but when Barry stands up at the end of the court case, he slides down the statue of Lady Justice and stands on the scales of Justice, which have been un-equally distributed, and shouts "Free these bees!". What you might miss though is that the scales go past being equally distributed and back to uneven again due to Barry's weight, a very quick foreshadowing that the outcome of the court case won't be as 'just' as intended.
- The nonsensicality of the court case is widely lampooned. However, the key point isn't any of the nonsense that the bees said. The simple fact is that they can say it. Forming any case at all, even a horrible one, is clear evidence of sapience. They are intelligent and rational. Therefore, they are persons. All the normal protections apply, most notably, against slavery. This wasn't decided as a simple civil liability, but as a matter of constitutional law.
- After his and Vanessa's first meeting, Barry breaks a crumb of cake apart and stores them in two pockets in his sweater. This works as a one-off gag. But also works in the way of bee anatomy. Bees have two "pollen pockets" on their sides where they store it.
- Vanessa offers Barry coffee after he first speaks to her, which Barry accepts despite being apparently unfamiliar with any food product besides honey. As he was so excited to share cake for the first time with Adam and raving about Cinnabon. It's likely Barry didn't actually know what coffee was. Just that Vanessa was extremely freaked out at the time, and he was likely just trying to calm her down by accepting.
- The lawyer Layton T. Montgomery is a white Southerner using speciesism to justify why humans have a "divine right" to use bees for honey, similar to how racism has been used to justify slavery and segregation in the Southern United States. This is why Barry claimed in the court case that bees were "honey slaves to the white man".
