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Barnyard - The Original Party Animals (Full Screen Edition) :: 042520653X
Description
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| 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 Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
By:Lauren
Picture this: Cows staring at you as you pass by on a walk or in the car, and you wonder, "Do cows just chew grass? Or do they have good and bad thoughts about humans? Well, the movie Barnyard tells all of what cows and other animals think of us.
At the farm, a milk cow, named Ben, has a hard time convincing his son, Otis that he needs to stop goofing around and try to be responsible. It's time for him to grow up and be an example for his friends by obeying the Barnyard rules. (One of them is remain on all fours during the presence of humans.) Then, trouble sets a foot, and it changes Otis' life forever. This causes a big issue in his confidence. Can Otis save the farm before it is too late? Or will trouble reign over the Barnyard?
This is a great movie because it was hilarious but sad, and it made me have different emotions all together. At one time in Barnyard, I would feel sad and then I would be happy. This movie has events like a death, sliding down a cliff, and cows driving a car that make you cry, laugh, and cheer from one moment to the next.
When I first saw the previews for this movie, I thought this movie would be one of those movies that would have no message at all, but I was wrong. The message seemed to be life is not always fun. There's a time to have fun, and there's a time to be serious.
This movie was so much better than the movie I watched with my cousin, which was Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. When I watched it, I was done watching it. It didn't seem to amuse me. The aliens and everybody else in the movie were not hilarious, and there were many jokes that I failed to catch. In Barnyard, you can understand all the jokes and it's hilarious. You can tell the director, Steve Odikerk, put a lot into this movie.
I give Barnyard an A+, because it has awesome music, great animation, and some of life's events that could change a person forever, which you will have to see for yourself.
People who love farms, talking animals, and cow tipping should go see this movie. I recommend this movie for kids over the age of six; because it has some content that is not suitable for younger kids.
Now you have an idea of what Barnyard is all about. This movie is what I would add to my collection of videos or DVDs, because it is funny and awesome.
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Author: Guest
Let me start by saying I ADORE Kevin James. KING OF QUEENS is one of my favorite sitcoms. And that being said, I will admit that his voicing of a male cow with udders make me think less of the movie. I know others have said it doesn't matter, and maybe it doesn't. But even my 10-year-old son noticed that, for a male bull, it sure looked like a female cow.
The movie itself is fun in some parts, absolutely hilarious in others, and so-so most of the time. For a family film, it's okay, but there are better ones out there. And when you see a male cow with udders becoming a father to a calf for the first time, it just does something (not pleasant) to the overall effect.
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Author: Guest
It was funny to watch and it also had a moral behind it. Which made it better. This movie really rocks.
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Author: Guest
What's going on here? All year, I've seen dozens of family movies, new and old. Of those I've seen, only two have been worth mentioning. They're actually incredible movies: The Cat Returns and Balto. Going into any family movie now though, I'm not expecting much. Barnyard didn't help that mind set. I'd like to tell you that I was disappointed by it, but it's exactly what I was expecting it to be. For the most part at least. I didn't expect it to rip off The Lion King, that's for sure. There's not a whole lot to Barnyard really, which is bad to say since the first trailers I saw for it almost 2 years ago made it seem like it'd be a cool lil' movie. Originally called Boy Tipping, it looked like a movie about farm animals getting back at humans who tease them on a regular basis. What happened? Well, considering how the final product turned out, I can't blame them for not showing much in trailers, since, like another bad recent family movie- Happy Feet, things get so boring that it's not worth mentioning. Now, don't think I'm some kid movie hater, because I'm not. Not one bit. But I can't see how anyone without vision or hearing problems can enjoy Barnyard. Why did this thing even get A-list actors to provide the voices? Man I hope Kevin James gets some good roles soon...
We start out by meeting the crew of the farm, which is held together quite well by Ben the cow. He's a tall, dark and beefy bovine who takes out the coyotes who try to feast on the farm folk, and has never let a single animal get harmed under his watch. His son, Otis, doesn't seem like he could care much, since he's a young cow just looking to party and have a good time. He and his buddies skip out on a farm meeting just to go hill surfing. One night though, Ben is overwhelmed by coyotes, and passes away, right before his son. Otis is elected the new head of the farm, but thinks he can't handle it, so he goes about his care free ways, and the entire farm turns into one constant party. They even invite pizza delivery guys to the barn (isn't that sick if the cows and pigs are eating pepperoni though?), not caring too much if they get caught. Heck, when the farmer checks in on them and sees them throwing a huge party, they knock him out several times in order to fix everything. This makes up most of the middle of Barnyard, and it's pretty boring with few jokes that anyone will get much out of. Only later on when most of the chickens are held hostage, does Otis do the right thing and head out to save them, as well as deal with the coyotes like his dad before him.
You could take out the entire second portion of Barnyard, and get the same results. The same jokes are used over and over to the point where you can think up a better one before it's even delivered. I kept falling asleep after the opening due to the lack of anything important or funny happening. Even the big musical numbers were dull. You'd think a rat with sunglasses singing Shaggy's "Boombastic" would be great, and I'm sure it would be, just not here. The only moment from the movie that sticks out in my mind is one that almost doesn't even fit in the movie. When Ben's taking out some coyotes, he's holding a guitar, and plays "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty. But given that it's Sam Elliot singing, with his signature deep voice, it's an even more beautiful rendition of the song. It's so great that being in this movie almost holds it down and makes me wonder if it should've even been put here in the first place. I guess mentioning the Lion King rip off bit is worth going into a little more here too. A lot of people claimed that Barnyard took what The Lion King had for the main plot point where Otis didn't want the responsibility of being the head of the farm. A minor thing that could be compared to many movies, sure. But the fact that he also doesn't want to because he makes an agreement with the head coyote (who strongly resembles Scar) seals the deal. Honestly, you're better off showing your kids The Lion King again. I also really do feel sorry for Kevin James being stuck in another lousy movie. After seeing his incredible stand up special, Sweat the Small Stuff, a few years ago, I knew the guy was awesome. His tv series is great too, but his lack of any good movie role choices, as far as I've seen at least, has me worried that he could be fading before he becomes a really big name like he should be.
The picture transfer looks like it was taken from a decent VHS copy. Most CG movies made these days get a great transfer to dvd, but I Barnyard manages to fail in this department as well. Lots of out of focus scenes, fuzz and even some aliasing plague the print. The sound's nice and loud though, and those musical numbers sound great (at least, in the technical sense). Lots of use of surround here for about half the movie, which is more than most animated flicks these days.
I remember commercials boasting that the special features were cool. But yet, once again, things just don't go like the advertisements would lead you to believe. The commentary being such a mess wasn't a good sign for how the other extras on the disc would be. It features Oedekerk, Marshal and "The Barnyard Crew", and is all over the place with people talking over each other. Someone could get a headache 15 minutes into this thing. They talk about some technical aspects, little in-jokes and the like, but never anything that interesting, as I've come to expect from Oedekerk. Boogying in the Barn is your standard featurette fare focusing on the band who made the original songs for Barnyard, North Mississippi All-stars. They seem pretty bored about the whole experience, even during the studio footage. Utter Talent is another short featurette that covers the voice actors, big or small. It's kinda sad to see the director praise some of the actors so much when most of them barely had 10 lines, namely Wanda Sykes and Andie MacDowell. Ironically enough, these two get tons of time during this extra, much more than they got in the movie. On top of this, I didn't even know Courtney Cox did the voice of the main female cow, and in seeing that, it feels like a waste of a big name actress. 'seems like she was expecting the movie to do better than it did. Keeping in the short featurette streak is An Animator's Life, probably the most boring of the bunch. The animators are stiff and keep showing differences between character designs that don't look that different. Having been interested in animation and character design for a long time, I didn't think I'd be saying that looking at something like this could be so boring. At least Method Acting With Kevin James ups things slightly- it's just footage of him on a farm with some cows, trying to act like them/gain inspiration from them. We also get about 10 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary. They wouldn't have helped the movie if they were left in, and are either in demi-complete animated or story board form. The Nick On-Air campaign is a series of little clips totaling 6 minutes, and are mostly trailers, but I guess exclusive to Nickelodeon. A lot of this footage is repeated from the previous featurettes, unfortunately. There are also the usual trailers, previews, a trailer for the game, music videos, and some DVD-ROM features (mostly games).
Before this year, I wasn't heartless or anything regarding family movies. But after seeing many disasters, and now Barnyard, I could end up being that way unless something fresh graces my dvd player. Some other bad news I just found out, is that there's going to be a Barnyard tv series. Kevin James is left out of it, but I see that Wanda Sykes has signed on. I guess another lousy animated movie claims another victim into going for roles just to get a quick buck. Do yourself a favor and watch something else, or go do some kind of family activity instead. One that doesn't involve Barnyard. I haven't seen Open Season yet, but I can pretty much promise it's better than this.
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Author: Guest
it actually has a very good,deep story to it.and makes you think.i"m 43 and it made me cry.once you see it youll understand
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