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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Barnyard, September 12, 2006
When the farmer is away, the animals will play. In fact, when the farmer is away, the animals stand on two legs, walk, and talk. One of those animals, Otis the cow (James), is a prankster who does as little as possible and enjoys life. Otis's day, Ben (Elliott), is the animal that keeps the farm running smoothly. He is their leader, and he takes this position seriously. Try as he might, he is unable to talk Otis into getting serious about life. He wants Otis to lead the farm when he is gone, but Otis wants none of that. Soon, when Ben is unable to lead, and Otis does not step up, the coyotes begin to think that the farm could be theirs for the taking.
"Barnyard" is about as middle of the road in quality as a kids' movie can be. It does some things right and provides some laughs, but it also does a lot of things wrong. Most disturbing are the male "cows". Even kids know that males should not have udders, and it is a bit disconcerting to hear Sam Elliott's voice come out of a cow. The story is not too original, with echoes of "The Lion King", and not all the jokes work. On the positive side, it does offer up a good moral of responsibility, and young kids will find it more funny than adults. This is a forgettable entry into 2006's animated movies, and will be forgotten within a year.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Barnyard lacks substance and (for the most part) humor, April 8, 2007
At first the animation seems interesting and unique, but after a while it starts to seem a bit amateurish and rushed, as does the plot and the character development. It's not all that surprising, considering that the writer/director is Steve Oedenkirk, creator of much Hollywood Schlock. I'm not going into detail on his career, IMDB it, and you'll find the only quality film he's made is Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and the quality of that is questionable to some.
The celebrity voice-over has become somewhat of a fad in recent animated film creations, although it's constantly been proven that celebrity voices don't necessarily equal box-office draw, and they definitely don't equal quality cartoon time. Barnyard is no exception.
The overall story is a subpar Lion King-esque ripoff with Sam Elliot as the patriarch of the barnyard and Kevin James as the young partying cow who doesn't take life seriously. Now follow the Lion King story, but replace Lions with cows, the prideland with a barnyard, and hyenas with coyotes. There you go, you've got this film.
There are some funny parts, and a good deal of heart and family friendly lessons to be learned, but much of the father/son story drags on and gets so intense that it will leave kids bored and probably not register with them. Other things are just random and unfunny.
Overall, this animated film feels vaguely familiar. Another studio rushing to put out a star-powered animation that families will flock to, only to find that it's not as easy a genre as Pixar makes it out to be. If you skip an animated film this year, skip this one.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Worst movie my son and I've ever seen, December 23, 2006
Nice animations. Nothing original in this movie, though. The plot lacks so much originality that the creators cannot think of any other way to make their movie funny except copying the action-violence theme from the old cheap movies with real life actors. (Haven't these guys seen Madagascar, Ice age, cars, etc. etc., for a good hint of how animators can be creative AND funny?) The social behavior displayed in the movie is terrible. Bulling is a central piece and makes up for most of the intended jokes. Add to that the the super-macho heroes steal a car and motorcycles, speed, and fool the police (and get away with it) while mimicking drinking & driving. Last, but not least, scriptwriters and characters make fun of a woman with a mental disease in a pretty sad way. I know many movies do it, and some are good enough to do it respectfully... but the creators of Barnyard are just not that good. There are many other good children movies out there... I wasted my money with this one.
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