Barnyard

Plot synopsis:
Otis is a carefree cow who prefers playing with his friends rather than accept responsibility. His adoptive father Ben is the leader of the barnyard. After Otis interrupts a barnyard meeting with his wild antics, Ben has a talk with his son, warning him that he will never be happy if he spends his life partying without acting more maturely. Otis ignores his advice and leaves to have fun with his friends Pip the Mouse, Pig the pig, Freddy the Ferret, and Peck the Rooster. That same day, Otis meets a pregnant cow named Daisy, who is accompanied by another cow, Bessy.
That night, the animals throw a party in the barn. All the animals including the world famous artist, Biggie Cheese, are there except Ben, who guards the fence line. Otis is assigned a shift along with Ben, but Otis talks himself out of working. Before Otis leaves, Ben tells him that the night he found him as a baby calf stumbling alone in the meadow, he swore he saw the stars dance, thus giving him reason to know his place was at the farm. Later, Ben takes on a pack of coyotes led by Dag, who is a serial killer turned coyote plundering the chicken coop. He manages to fight off the pack until he is bitten on the leg by the red coyote, making him fall. The coyotes pile on Ben, but he manages to grab Dag and escapes the pile. He threatens to punch Dag, but lets him go, scaring away him and the coyotes. Ben falls on the ground, exhausted. A hen named Etta runs into the barn and tells Otis and he runs outside to his father. Ben dies and is buried on his favorite hill by the farmer, and the other animals mourn Ben after the farmer leaves.
After Ben's death, all the animals elect Otis as the new leader of the barnyard. Otis shirks his duties by leaving Freddy and Peck in charge of the coop, then helps the trouble-making Jersey Cows Eddy, Igg, and Bud teach a lesson to a mean fat youngster called Snotty Boy, eluding the police along the way. Later that night, when Otis is holding Daisy's hoof under the starlight, he overhears the coyotes chasing a rabbit and leaves Daisy to pursue the coyotes and avenge his father. Otis tries to attack Dag and his pack, but he is outsmarted by them. Since Otis is weaker, Dag orders a deal that he and his pack will take various barnyard animals at random times and that, if Otis tries to stand up for all of them, they will slaughter everyone at the barnyard. Otis decides to leave the barnyard, realizing that his chances of victory are small.
The next morning, before leaving, Otis is informed that the coyotes took some hens and Maddy, a little chick who is one of Otis' best friends and looks up to him. Otis realizes that he has been fooled by Dag, as he was not expecting him and the coyotes until tonight, and sets off to rescue the chickens. Otis confronts the pack but is easily defeated after Dag bites him in the leg; however, Pip, Pig, Freddy, Peck, and Miles arrive to help Otis, along with the Jersey Cows, Wild Mike, and even some gophers. Dag tries to attack Otis from behind, but Otis is alerted when Peck successfully manages to crow a warning. Otis catches Dag and threatens to punch him the same way his father did, but he cannot bring himself to do it. Instead, he warns Dag to never return to the barnyard. Otis then swings Dag out of the junkyard with a golf club, finally rescuing the chickens and avenging his father's death.
That night, the animals hijack some motorcycles and return to the barnyard, where the others reveal to Otis that Daisy went into labor after he left to face the coyotes. She gives birth to a calf, whom he names Ben after Otis's father. Duke, the farmer's sheepdog, asks Otis if he wants to stay and be their leader. Otis agrees, and everyone cheers as he walks outside to find the stars dancing, forever grateful for what his father taught him.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
This type of story didn't start in 1994 - the plot is ancient, with even Disney admitting that it was based on some of their earlier films, Hamlet and - get this - Exodus from the Bible (not including the fact that it was alleged that the whole movie was stolen from "Kimba the White Lion, but that's another matter).
It may not be as good as many other animations but overall I think that this movie was not a great disappointment.
I agree that it should not be ranked along side Finding Nemo or The Incredibles however it does have some hilariously funny moments.This movie stars Kevin James (King of Queens) and Courtney Cox (the woman we all know from "Friends").
There's no getting around it: "Barnyard" is the worst animated feature I've seen in years, and one of the worst movies I've endured during summer '06.
There was more comedy, better artwork (the design and poses of the dog alone drew laughs) and more emotional honesty in this six or seven minute cartoon than in all of "Barnyard." My 6-year old niece and her 4-year old brother kept recounting the best moments of this "ancient" short all the way home.
When I interrupted to ask my niece what she thought of "Barnyard," she paused a moment and said, "Well...I'm sorry, but...I didn't think it was really too good" - then proceeded to chatter on about the Avery cartoon.When children find that a nearly 60-year old cartoon short (in a faded, deteriorating print to boot) is more entertaining and memorable than the 2-hour animated feature it precedes, it can only mean one thing: Time for the suits at Nickelodeon to call more meetings, do more "market research," and tell the "creatives" to come up with storyboards for "Barnyard II: The Original Party Animals Meet The Fairly Odd Parents!" (No doubt followed by another "brand-extension" classic-in-progress: "Barnyard III: The Original Party Animals Moo-ve into Outer Space With Jimmy Neutron!").
Have the drawers ever seen a cow and a bull?This movie is not safe for children.The story is dumb.
A classic tale of a son trying to fulfill a fathers expectations is used in a lot of kids movies, but the animation or graphics need to be really good to keep a childs attention.
It was not funny at all.The funniest part of the movie was the transsexual "male cows." Most of the jokes were geared toward adults not children.
I think I could have enjoyed the movie otherwise, there were some funny bits, the animation itself wasn't bad.
The animation is flat and extremely poor, story line is a poorly executed ripoff of the "Lion King" with lame "comedy" bits, and the voice talent has to be one of the worst in the memory with Kevin James in the leading (?) role (and I thought Keifer Sutherland was awful in "The Wild").
Not only are main plots stolen from THE LION KING, but the villains are painfully reminiscent of the Hyenas in that better film.Nonetheless, BARNYARD has some genuinely funny moments.
In particular, there is a scene in which the farmer witnesses the other life his animals lead and they hilariously try to convince him it was all a hallucination.While this works well for kids, I couldn't help but want a more engrossing plot.
This film at sometimes feels like as if it were made by the Farrelly Brothers.It's slapstick humor and it's wildly nutty behaviour that makes it look like a R-rated comedy,makes it all the while more funny The story is sort of like a parody of Lion King.Farmers on a farm are keeping animals under their eye and well protected.And animals pretty much behave like,well,animals.But what happens when the farmers out.Well,the party begins,as these animals somehow behave more like humans,crazily partying around with the rest of the animals.And a carefree cow is held responsible for whatever goes on.He's in charge.And he needs to protect the farm from their enemies,the Coyotes.Otis the carefree cow,pretty much don't take it seriously.Ben ,a cow who takes it very seriously is giving advice to Otis to grow up and all that.When Ben is no longer able to lead, Otis tries to keep order but the role of leader does not come as naturally for him.
Without Ben to keep everyone in line, absolute mayhem breaks loose and it isn't long before the farmer begins to get to the bottom of the animals' secret--and the scheming coyotes begin to think that the farm could be theirs for the taking.Just don't take this film seriously,especially not the story.The problem with the film is that ,we've seen it all before.Especially the recent animated films that are flooding cinema's.They are either about animals,or insects,or well CARS.And this film has similarities with many animated films.The story is nothing new at all.And that is its drawback.And it's approach is rather conventional with dumb looking characters that are half baked.But there are sweet moments that don't get too sentimental.Another weakness is its weaker than expected animation.It's not fair to have such an average animation to a funny movie.If the film's animation was heighten to a better quality,it would've been better than it already was.However,I really liked the jokes,which seem to have been aimed at adults.But the animation was passable.The film has some really outrageously hilarious moments,giving you snort out loud laughs.The animals are more human-like than actual animals,and they love partying around,all night.They behave like those characters from Ace Ventura films or other Oedekerk films.In short,it's simply a mindless comedy with a lot of great laughs.I would take this any time over the disappointing Talladega nights.You gotta moo at least once!What happens in the Barnyard,stays in the Barnyard..
Had I done so, I would have missed out on what has probably been my favorite kids movie of the summer.This movie was sweet and funny, (I actually laughed OUT LOUD a couple of times!), and dare I say I even got a little 'choked up' in a couple parts - Yes...over a bunch of silly animated farm animals.
I've seen a lot better, but because the plot was decent, I really didn't mind.Yes, I thought it was goofy that the boy cows had udders, but I didn't think it was offensive ...(and I am a fundamentalist Christian!) I DID think it had a lot of unnecessary references (for a kids movie, anyways) to alcohol/drunkenness.
Bulls, boy cows for you idiots who did the animation, do not have udders.So, being distracted by the failure to understand bovine anatomy by all associated with this movie, I had to just turn it off.
My 2 year old was asking me if all cows have udders and trying to explain to her that this is simply not true and seeing the movie only confused her more!
The whole cinema was roaring with laughter.I must admit that it is maybe more of an adult movie than a kids film though because some of the jokes were actually quite dirty.
Most likely you wouldn't even understand and enjoy them if you were younger than 12.The Barnyard probably isn't the right choice if you want your little ones to watch something educational and deep although there are some lessons for life included.
I loved this movie and thought it was clever and the writing exceptionally funny.I usually don't love animation, but Barnyard was poignant and entertaining.
Let's do it!"The movie has no essential plot, but rather relies on the hope that people will find a talking cow funny.
It is an awful movie and my 10 year old son even said a few times, "this is dumb, bulls do not look like this".
The mind truly boggles.Set on a farm where the animals walk and talk like humans as soon as the farmer is not looking, this is a tale which completely rips off "The Lion King" except for the following few details: (1) The lions are now replaced by cattle (2) The hyenas are now coyotes (3) "The Lion King" was a triumph of a movie in both visual and aural flair and it told a story well, while Barnyward is stinker of a movie with no innovations an tells and old story badly.I basically ended up seeing this because it fitted into my timetable for that day rather than out of any great need/want to see it.
A good time was had by all in the auditorium today (we were the only adults at the movie without children).Only two negative criticisms, both specific to the drawing of animals: 1) Most of the cows are male, but they all had udders.
Out of all the crap I've had to endure being a parent, by far the worst is the low-brow junk that's passed off as "children's entertainment." There are the movies that come into this house that are so bad and dreadful that I can't help but feel as if those who made the crap personally insulted my family.I only have 24 hours to my day, and my kids aren't going to be little forever, so what time I do have with them is precious.
In the letters page, one reader asked about the anatomically-incorrect cows(bovine) and whether or not it was intentional or not, and the magazine explained that the movie's director "thought it would be funny for the male cows(bulls) to have udders".Know what?
hmmm.once again i'm amazed.i can't understand the low rating(just over 5/10)this movie has.i thought there were a few very funny moments in the movie,much more than "Over the Hedge" which has a rating of over 7/10.this movie is also touching in parts and i thought they achieved a good balance of humour and drama.while i wouldn't say it is hysterically funny,there are,like i said,some very funny moments.this movie is also a fun movie to watch.it is exciting,with plenty of action.this to me is a much better family movie than its rating reflects.id have to say it tries very hard to achieve its goal of being an animated comedy(and succeeds often enough)rather than just an animated film."Barnyard" gets a 6/10..
There is absolutely NO reason why the males could not have been bulls, and it disturbs me to think that out of the hundreds of people who worked on this film, not one of them spoke up to say that there was something wrong.
Miles the violent donkey (not a horse!) was an absolute visual rip-off of Shrek's wonderful "Donkey", and it horrified me when he kept on kicking in the farmer's head just because the animals were stupid enough to let him stumble in on them while they were out of character....One or two scenes made us laugh, especially our six-year-old son.....the surfing, the motorcycles, the chase in the car.
It lacks a good story to tell, seemingly borrowing familiar elements from The Lion King, and even the weak idea from Chicken Little about the relationship between father and son - here between the Cows son Otis (Kevin James from Hitch) and Ben (Sam Elliot), who heads the farm.Writer-Director Steve Oedekerk, who wrote the screenplay for comedies like Bruce Almighty and The Nutty Professor, seem to fall short of providing the laughs for the animals.
It is one thing to have excellent art, but it seemed more of a cover for the lack of a sustainable engaging story.Watch it only if your kids bug you to bring them to the movie, especially since cutesy chick characters are used as bait.
Fun movie with a good lesson about accepting responsibilities, however confusing on certain animal gender..
If movie makers are making movies for children, who by the way are little sponges and learn (whether right or wrong) from everything they come across, then these writers and producers need to be accurate, Yes I do understand that this is an animated movie and the story is fiction, however, gender is gender and therein should lie the accuracy.
It's one of few animated movies I actually enjoyed watching with my kids.
Coming from a farming community we found the fact that all of the male bovine in the film having udders drawn on them was a little disturbing.
I know this is just an animated, humorous show but by putting female body parts on a male, I had to suspend my disbelief so much that I just couldn't enjoy the movie like I might have.
The kids however still enjoyed the movie though we took the time afterward to make sure they knew the difference between bulls and cows..
How can an entire film be written,cast,animated,edited,and released without one person mentioning something like: hey, aren't all cows girls,and bulls are male?
I was so creeped out by the male cows with udders that I had a very hard time watching this animated trans-gender/transsexual animal movie.
The leader, Otis, have to lead the group to party and to fight the evil coyotes that threaten to kill all the kens on the farm.Let me start off by pointing out the only single good thing about this film.
I think the animation was great, the characters were super, and although yes, ill agree that the sappy scenes were a little much, it was overall a super movie.
I think it's the fact that one has to adjust to Steve's meaning of funny.By the way, if your kids are looking for a laugh, I wouldn't bring them.
It even bored the kid I took with me to see this film.All in all, decent animation, thin, but OK, story, too little events to keep it rolling.
Aside the story copied from Lion King ,bad lines and attempts at jokes there something that perplexes me about this movie.You see: in this movie all the cows both males and females even newborn have udders and I feel that if they've done that they should have went all the way and also give udders to the dogs ,cats, chicken and pigs, it certainly wouldn't have made the movie any worst.Also some lines like the animals describing the farmer as a "good man, because he's vegan", chickens throwing darts at KFC poster give it away as a pro-vegan advertising material targeted at children: this would also explain why they didn't bother with making the actual movie good.
and for a kid's movie, it very inadvisable to watch this with children because, only girl cows have udders???
So after finally checking it out, I have to say that I was a bit more surprised with the film than I thought I would be.Basically, Otis the Cow (Kevin James) is a free-spirited party animal.
It actually looked pretty good for what it is.Obviously the biggest question to come out of the design of some of these characters is the udders on the male cows.
Barnyard feels a lot like some familiar Disney movies- most recognizingly The Lion King.
But honestly, I was waiting for the female roosters and male hens and adult calves to have their say in this movie!Making cows male in voice only and retaining mammary glands (they actually looked like bears with several genitalia sticking out of their stomach; it took me a minute or two to figure out what kind of animal it was) is like saying Abraham Lincoln signed the Declaration of Independence and thinking it's funny.
If the producers actually thought making male cows would be funny, like they apparently say, then they should have made a point of it instead of ignoring it.
Actually, for a movie about barnyard animals, the humans had the best lines!
Males do not have udders!No one would have thought anything if it'd just been left with nothing there.I loved the movie and so did my kids.
The whole family went to see this movie (including 2 kids 5YO and almost 2YO) this afternoon and we all really enjoyed it.To me it came across as an original plot line and I found it highly amusing and entertaining, although at one point I thought "Oh no, not the Lion King again".
One thing that really make me hate this movie was the fact that the cattle, bulls and cows, all had udders.
I'm still not sure why there were male cows with udders and then bulls too, but I don't care, because as selfish as we've become as a nation and world, it's great to see a movie that flat out says that while it's good to take care of yourself, the better man helps those around him.Thumbs up!.
It's funny how people get all worked up about a cartoon movie that contains male cows.
On the other hand if you are looking for a good movie for entertainment for children, than this is it.p.s. I must still have some kid in me since I also enjoyed watching with my kids..
the movie has a good plot going for it, there are a couple of things wrong with the film, like the ending is sort of rushed and there is a ton of product placements.
There is still a bunch of thing that are good, like the jokes in the movie and the characters, there are just too many to count.
Like I said before, don't judge if you don't have the facts, and this is a very highly recommend movie while also being a very funny flick, original, and slightly cliché but good!.
So many people bash this movie for everything from the "male cows with utters" to the fighting scene with Ben and the Coyotes.
Most of your children probably didn't notice unless you pointed it out.And the violence in the movie is just as violent -if not less- then the video games kids play today.If you want some good laughs, then check this film out.
The animation isn't spectacular either.But it still is a fun movie to watch.
"Male" cows with udders isn't really a reason to hate a film.