Product Description

Moo-ve over, all you pretenders … here are the original party animals – the critters of Barnyard! This laugh-filled, tuneful animated adventure stars Otis (voiced by Kevin James), a carefree party cow. To the consternation of his respected father Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott), Otis is happy to spend his days singing, dancing and playing tricks on humans. But all good things must come to an end, and when Otis is suddenly forced into his father's position of responsibility, the animal antics multiply as he struggles to find the courage and talent to be a true leader. Wild, wacky and "udderly" hilarious, here’s a herd of animated pranksters that'll keep you laughing out loud!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11385 in DVD
• Brand: GLOVER,DANNY
• Released on: 2006-12-12
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
When the farmer's back is turned, the animals party down in Barnyard. A young cow named Otis (voiced by Kevin James, The King of Queens) loves to have fun at the farm's wild late-night hoe-downs, despite the disapproval of his father, Ben (Sam Elliott, Thank You for Smoking). When Ben dies defending the barnyard from marauding coyotes, Otis is chosen as the new leader--but responsibility sits uneasily on Otis' head and he fears he may not be able to protect his friends from the coyotes. Barnyard's design of the cows seems inspired by Gary Larson's The Far Side comics; though the style is simple, the characters are surprisingly expressive. From moment to moment, the movie is reasonably entertaining. The actors--including Courteney Cox, Danny Glover, and David Koechner (Anchorman) as a very menacing coyote--do solid voice work and there are plenty of amusing gags. But as Barnyard gallops towards its end, the combination of cliches (the story is a clumsy reworking of The Lion King), odd choices (the male cows have udders), and lackluster dialogue makes the movie sag. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Barnyard
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.

Barnyard lacks substance and (for the most part) humor
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.

Barnyard - The Original Party Animals (Widescreen Edition)
Barnyard - The Original Party Animals (Widescreen Edition)~ Voice of Kevin James is an o.k. animated movie but I expected more from it. I read in other reviews that the director thought it would be funny for all cows to have udders, but to me this was so distracting and I kept like thinking about this the whole movie. The story line is a complete copy of The Lion King. The music is what saves this movie. The movie also seems a bit long and I kept like looking at my watch to see if it had stopped. The jokes are sometimes funny but many times they miss the point. Still and all the movie is not all bad but I must say that I was quite disappointed and yes I had expected more, but maybe this was my mistake;).