Barnyard

Eh
Neither I nor my son enjoyed this one. Over The Hedge- Cute, entertaining movie. This- Even when you get past the bulls with udders, I thought that there were a lot of elements of this film that weren't appropriate for children under 10. There were some cool jokes and sparse pieces of snappy writing- Sam Elliot singing Tom Petty was fun, but the animation of the few people in the movie and the coyotes was a little dark and ugly for my kid. I felt like I watched two movies- one was the Nick TV show, the other a kind of stark coming of age flick. The animation style seemed to change depending on which part of the script you were in- it just seemed choppy. Both concepts on their own were decently done (except for the bulls with udders), but there was enough questionable content that I won't be owning this one or even watching it again.

Udderly distracting!
Like many of the other critics, the good fun in this movie is a bit overshadowed by the "guy cows with udders". Of course, I do have to agree that real bulls standing up would have been just as, if not more, objectionable......! It is still a very funny movie but parents, don't be surprised when your kid, upon seeing a cow - with udders - in the field, ask you "Is it a mama cow or a daddy cow?

Eh.
My heart sank when I saw the Nickelodeon logo at the beginning of this movie, and my fears were confirmed. Seeing the promo (after the movie) for a Barnyard TV series this fall only confirmed what I already knew. Barnyard was just a TV pilot released to the theaters. And it has all the problems of the usual kiddy TV show: everything is medium instead of well done, with maudlin segments to try to jerk tears, and lessons taught so heavy-handedly that I expected to see the E/I tag in the corner of the screen. Overall, the best way to describe this movie is TV bland.

I did note that while the story was similar to The Lion King--main character comes back from his lazy wastrel lifestyle to inexplicably have the ability to save the day--there was more of an attempt at character development in Barnyard. But not enough to make me care.

I thought it was funny that, when Barnyard was released, half the world carried on about the fact that the bulls had udders. Steve...

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