It tells the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), an 11-year-old girl who participates in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, her mother (Angela Bassett), her schoolmates, and her coach, Dr. Joshua Larabee (Laurence Fishburne).

The cast also features Curtis Armstrong, J.R. Villarreal, Sean Michael Afable, Erica Hubbard, Lee Thompson Young, Julito McCullum, Sahara Garey, Eddie Steeples, and Tzi Ma.

The film was developed over a period of 10 years by Atchison, who came up with the initial concept after seeing the 1994 Scripps National Spelling Bee and noting that a majority of the competitors came from well-off socioeconomic backgrounds.

At Woodland Hills, Akeelah meets Dylan Chiu, a Chinese-American boy who won second place at the past two national spelling bees and is in his final year of eligibility.

[27] Dalia Phillips appears as Akeelah's teacher, Ms. Cross,[27][1] and Eddie Steeples as Derrick T.[27] Tzi Ma takes the role of Mr. Chiu, Dylan's father,[27][1] while Wolfgang Bodison plays Tanya's unnamed husband.

[29][30] From this, he got the idea to write a script following the story of a child who had talent for spelling bee but was from a low-income neighborhood so did not "have access to the resources or coaching to pursue it as these other kids had".

[37] Thus, Akeelah skipping rope to memorize the words was added as "something that was normal for the spelling bee" but Atchison tried to create it in a "subtle" way as he thought the audience could consider this unrealistic.

As a filmmaker, you can dig into these issuesCommentators on Akeelah and the Bee opined it dealt with multiple themes, including race[47] and racism,[48] poverty,[49] educational system,[50][51] competition and sportsmanship,[51][52] self-esteem,[53] self-image,[54] stigma,[50] community,[50][55] friendship,[56] gender[47] and sexism,[49] age,[47] class[57] and classism,[48] and empowerment.

[5][55] Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle said the film indicates "a community-based, cooperative model of group success",[51] while Justin Chang of Variety said it "focuses ... on the bee's community-uniting impact.

[62] Nevertheless, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times commented "it raises important points about the ... obstacles to success that kids from poor neighborhoods face.

[57] However, Chang asserted it shows the spelling bee contest as "a democratizing force",[1] while Rob Asghar, for The Seattle Times, wrote it treats English as "the quintessential American tool for success.

The site's critical consensus reads, "A warm, family-friendly underdog story, featuring terrific supporting performances from Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, and Angela Bassett".

[98] African American Literature Book Club elected it as the best black film of 2006, as well as chose Fishburne as the second best actor, and Palmer and Basset as the second and eighth best actresses, respectively.

[52] Writing for Film Journal International, Doris Toumarkine praised its pace and how "Atchison takes spelling competitions and conveys the excitement of the 'sport,' the appeal of the 'game,' the thrill of the win, [and] the crushing blow of the loss".

[55] Jane Clifford of U-T San Diego felt the film would appeal to both children and adults, and stated that every time she tried to predict its plot "it took a sharp turn.

[56] Dana Stevens, writing for The New York Times, asserted, "The innate suspense and charm of the spelling bee", and "a trio of crack performances" can turn "a formulaic sports picture" into a "tale that manages to inspire without being sappy".

[102] A New York Press critic affirmed that Akeelah and the Bee "resurrects a nearly lost idea of what an art-movie really is" because it has "dramatic attention to character and place, psychology and existence".

[57] Chang of Variety commented that it "plays like The Karate Kid with a pro-literacy agenda, pushing all the right emotional buttons yet hitting quite a few wrong ones in the process".

[50] PopMatters's Cynthia Fuchs stated it is formulaic as it has some "conventions that make so many other genre films feel stale", but that it "torques them slightly", emphasizing the "intellectual activities" Akeelah gets involved with.

[51] Morris of The Boston Globe argued, "If Akeelah and the Bee is a generic, well-oiled commercial contraption, it is the first to credibly dramatize the plight of a truly gifted, poor black child".

Anna Smith of Empire called it "formulaic and all-American", commenting that many scenes "appear functional rather than inspirational", and that the film focused on the racial issue "a little too heavily".

[107] Time Out's Jessica Winter also drew a comparation to after-school specials, saying "on the big screen ... its clichés seem bigger and its characterisations broader than they would on the more forgiving telly".

[79] Jan Stuart of Newsday deemed it "virtually suspense-free",[110] while Robert Hanks of The Independent stated it has an important message but that is a "shame it couldn't be encased in a less faked-up story".

[104] Ingman declared Atchison's "ensemble is wonderful, and his star, Palmer, is a fantastically assured young actress who conveys Akeelah's maelstrom of 11-year-old feelings with no apparent effort".

[107] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian even claimed that the line "If you can barely beat a little black girl" (spoken by Dylan's father) signifies that Atchison "thinks it's all right to bring in racism by making the Asians the racists".

[109] Scholars Charise Pimentel and Cathleen Sawyer from the Texas State University published an article titled "Akeelah and the Bee: Inspirational Story of African-American Intellect and Triumph or Racist Rhetoric Served Up On Another Platter?"

[118] Using Linda Williams' categories of what constitutes a racial melodrama, Linder argues that it is described as an "inspirational" film because of "⁠[its] portrayal of Akeelah's victimization by the black community that surrounds her" and of redemption only achieved "through the idealized discourse of young people's educational success as defined by dominant (white) culture".

[119] Linder said characters "are mostly represented as having 'no interest in escape' from societal oppressions and limitations" and that "there is no sign throughout the film of any kind of lasting change for Akeelah's school or her young peers".

[121][115] The co-authors wrote that Larabee implies that "legitimate forms of intelligence can only be achieved through a Eurocentric perspective, thus advancing the message that Akeelah must be rescued from her African-American ways of knowing, in order to be considered intellectual".

[124] Although Fuchs said the film was able to avoid the "white authority figure saves the underclass child" plotline by introducing Larabee,[104] Ladson-Billings, Linder, and Pimentel and Sawyer opined that it did not.