NEW YORK — Life might be like a box of chocolates for Forrest Gump. But for Jerry Seinfeld, it's a pot of honey.

The creator and star of his iconic namesake series buzzes back into the spotlight Friday, when he brings the animated comedy "Bee Movie" to movie theaters.

It's not that he needs to work. Seinfeld earns $60 million a year in syndication royalties and from his stand-up gigs, according to Forbes magazine, enough to subsidize his collection of Porsches. He, his wife, Jessica, and their three children live in the same posh Central Park West building as Helen Gurley Brown, but unlike the longtime Cosmopolitan editor, they have a terrace overlooking the sweeping greenery below.

To Seinfeld's credit, he doesn't attempt to downplay his good fortune in a false attempt at humility.

"I'm very lucky to be in pretty good shape," says the comedian, 53. "I never plan anything. I never say never. One of the hardest things in life is just to enjoy it. This is a very unique, cool experience, and I'm trying to absorb this moment. It's pretty wild. I never imagined myself in this position."

That would be as brain and voice behind one of fall's most heavily hyped movies. For his big-screen debut, Seinfeld decided to be a kid again.

"I wanted the Play-Doh experience. You open a can of Play-Doh and you dump that turquoise cylinder on a table, and you can do whatever you want. There's no rules," he says. "And the smell, of course — I don't know if that's considered sniffing. If it is, count me in.

"Making an animated movie is playing with toys, except you're a grown-up, and there's millions of dollars at stake."

In person, Seinfeld exudes the confidence that comes from having nothing left to prove. He's witty and chatty, but not particularly warm. He's self-assured and knows exactly how funny he can be, pausing after delivering a killer nugget or two to allow his audience of one the appropriate time to laugh.

And though the comedy world is rife with disheveled stars who revel in their slovenliness, Seinfeld is the anti-Jack Black. On stage, he wears a crisp suit. And in person, he is nothing if not meticulous. Seinfeld emerges from the elevator in his plush apartment building, dapper and neat to a fault. The bottom button of his blue shirt is open, just so, and it contrasts nicely with his mustard-colored suede Tod's shoes. His black leather jacket fits so flawlessly, you'd swear it was tailor-made.

When he strolls through Central Park on this sunny afternoon, the local nannies and moms don't give him a passing glance. They're used to him, and Seinfeld manages to blend in without needing a team of bodyguards.

His wife isn't surprised, calling her very famous husband "so grounded. He treats people beautifully. He has the most wholesome values. He cares about so much about being civil in the world. He lives life so purely and so elegantly."

MASTER OF HIS DOMAIN

Since his namesake sitcom went off the air in 1998, Seinfeld has been largely undercover. Sure, he has continued to do stand-up, written a children's book and starred in the documentary "Comedian." And yes, the DVD collection "Seinfeld — The Complete Series" (33 discs, $284) arrives in November. But by and large, the once-confirmed bachelor has focused on his family life with his children, Sascha, 6, Julian, 4, and Shepherd, 2.

At home, Jessica says, he makes their kids crack up so hard, she worries they're going to choke. "He makes me laugh endlessly, and he makes our children cackle. He does funny voices, funny faces. Even though my kids have not seen 'Bee Movie,' they're obsessed with the trailers. He'll do funny things with the characters. When he reads stories to them, he does different voices."

Which of his kids is most like him? "My daughter has really got the comedy gene. She really likes to ham it up," Seinfeld says. "All kids like to laugh, but we were in the car the other day and she says, 'Daddy, I really like making people laugh.' She's 6 years old. And I go, 'I know the feeling.' "

That's the goal of "Bee Movie," Seinfeld says. Forget the $150 million budget or the pressure of almost single-handedly promoting DreamWorks' major fall family release. The movie has been four years in the making, and Seinfeld has been involved in every detail.

Mostly, though, he's looking forward to finally seeing the flick with his kids. "They think it's Daddy in a bee costume," he says.

'TOTALLY DIFFERENT'

When he first came up with the concept, "Sascha was 2, and we had a newborn, so I wasn't thinking I needed to make entertainment for these babies. I was interested in doing something totally different from anything I'd ever done. If you don't get excited, you don't do good stuff. This was exciting."

Those with lesser connections might spend years pitching the idea of a B-movie starring a bee to studios and being politely rejected. Not Seinfeld. He went straight to the top, in this case, DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg.

"I called him to direct an American Express commercial that I thought was something he might do. And it isn't. But he said that as long as I was around, why don't we have dinner? So we did," Seinfeld says. "And I just blurted out this idea about a movie about bees called 'Bee Movie.' I knew he would like the title — a lot of people don't know that term anymore." (For the record, a B-movie is a schlocky, low-budget feature.)

Not only did Spielberg love the concept, but he also gave Seinfeld carte blanche. "That was our deal," Seinfeld says. "I never really had much supervision at NBC and certainly never had any as a stand-up comic. And I didn't think I would work well with a lot of supervision. That was my job: to make my own thing."

Why he chose to make anything at all is not something Seinfeld can or will articulate. He's gregarious, answering questions about family life and why he loves his neighborhood: "It has the lowest BS quotient in the city. People are extremely unattractive, but I feel comfortable with that. Nobody's cool."

Yet ask him where his drive comes from, why he's still motivated to go to his Midtown office each day when as the creator of the show about nothing, he could sit back and do nothing, and he clams up. "You couldn't really do nothing. You'd go nuts," he retorts.

Those near him repeatedly bring up his famed work ethic.

"Yeah, I suppose he's a perfectionist, but he has some looseness," says Matthew Broderick, who plays his best bee buddy in the movie. "He's a very hard worker. He tried to make every moment and every joke as fully worked out as possible. He does finish everything."

And from Jessica: "Jerry is passionate about every single thing he does. He gives himself 150 percent to everything, and that includes our marriage, our children. That's who he is. Nothing was going to happen in that movie that he wasn't going to have his hand in."

WHAT'S NEXT

Once he's done promoting "Bee Movie," Seinfeld will perform at the Comedy Festival in Las Vegas in November with his pal Chris Rock. And then, he'll be a homebody.

"I'm going to relax for a little while, be here for the holidays, and find that routine. It kind of bugged me for a long time when the kids would say, 'Can you pick me up from school?' And I would always have to say no. I would like to start saying yes. That's what I'm looking forward to. In fact, today, I'm picking my daughter up from school."