Barnyard:The Original Party Animals

Release Date: September 2006

I took Mighty Mo to this on a Thursday night and other than two other families we had the theater to ourselves. Mo did not sit very long during the showing and ran up and down the empty aisle quite a bit. I don't know if this is an indication that the movie isn't relatable to a 3.5 year old or if he just had pent up energy.

Barnyard is a computer animated movie that is shown as a caractiture of computer animated movies; dogs are the size of farmers, people are shown with over-emphasis of flaws and anatomies. The colors pop out and the lines on the animals are slightly balloonish, as if they are all wearing perfectly smooth puffy jackets.

The titular hero of this movie is Otis, voice by Kevin James (King of Queens) who is a cow wanting no responsiblity except to have fun all the time. His posse of predictable farm animals are only to eager to wind Otis up and let him run amok with his plans of personal destruction.

From the point of view of Ben, the father voiced to greatness by Sam Elliot (We Were Soldiers Once, Lonesome Dove, Road House), Otis is the epitome of whats wrong with young adults today who wish to be perpetual kids and the hardest work they will ever do is avoid work. That being said, the relationship between the two is very touching and respectful.

The antagonists are coyotes who are strangely similar to the Hyena's from Lion King. In that context and many others this movie could be seen as a rip off of the Disney classic. However this movie will never be in the same class as that. I mean for crying out loud Mighty Mo still calls all lions on t.v. and at the zoo, "Simba's" or "Scar's". I suppose Mustafa doesn't roll off a toddlers tongue.

The catch with Barnyard is that the animals can walk upright, talk to themselves and to humans, have the ability to do all the things that animals and humans can do. This is used to create all kinds of scenarios that bring the animals into contact and interaction with humanity, especially redneck teens, the police in a spoof of COPS and the farmer who cares for them.

The songs are much too fast to be memorable but they have a good beat and much of it is to emphasis the fun that "Original Party Animals" will have. Except for one, which should be called 'Ben's Theme' if put to a playlist. It is Sam Elliot hautingly singing Tom Pettys, "Won't back down' as if channeling Johnny Cash.

Other than a few notable voices like Elliot, Danny Glover and Wanda Sykes, the rest are known names without faces to go with them. I would have never guessed Courtney Cox Arquette was the main female voice.

Perhaps I am hyper sensitve to this as a healthy and able parent, but I tire of movies that follow in the Disney pattern of killing a parent in order to advance the plot line. As if a young man/woman/creature can only lose their way then find themselves if a mother or father is killed in an unnatural way.

Gratefully the movie does move in a decidely non-Disney direction by not having the sidekicks drawn and acted in an over the top way and voiced by a mainstream comic, ala Mulan or Alladin.

Will this be a long standing classic purchased for generations of kids to come? Probably not. It is too similar but not as strong as other movies with tighter plotlines, more fleshed out characters, better music and jokes that are geared to give the parents some adult humor as well. I do think its a good renter with a fast run time (1hr 23min) that kids into animals will like at least through one viewing.

Official Website.

Trailer.