Barnyard (2006)

The Udder King

- Nickelodeon Movies is obviously trying to get into the lucrative family-oriented animated film market with their 2006 animated production Barnyard. They have succeeded in getting into it, unfortunately they are easily dead last in this animated films market as far as quality and entertainment goes. What makes the Disney, Disney-Pixar, and even some of the DreamWorks animated films great are their animation quality, wittiness in their writing, and ability to entertain all ages. Barnyard subjects all of the audience to barnyard-level humor, cheap-looking animation, the most lame brained slapstick one could conjure up and flat characters one cannot dream of caring about (and somebody please explain to me why all of the MALE cow characters have udders!!!!).

Not only that, but Barnyard completely rips off The Lion King (1994) - and the filmmakers had to know that they were doing it too since everyone and their dog has seen The Lion King 100 million times over.

The plot for Barnyard goes like so: a young animal (in this case, a cow) must take over for his father who was died (HELLOOOO, Mufasa & Simba anyone?) and protect their land (in this case a farm instead of "pride lands") from the evil animals (in this case wolves instead of hyenas) while the main character tries to win the heart of the female animal (also a cow). There are even scenes in Barnyard that are seemingly ripped directly from the film reels of The Lion King; especially the fight in the wolves' junkyard lair that looks "surprisingly" a lot like the hyena's elephant graveyard lair seen in The Lion King.

Maybe this just is not my kind of movie but I simply did not like Barnyard very much in any way at all. I will admit that there are a couple of funny gags in the film - and when I say that, I mean that there are literally two or three (maybe four) gags that get a chuckle within the entire 90 minute movie. I like a well done animated movie but give me any of the classic animated Disney films and the Disney-Pixar films over Barnyard any day.


CBC Rating: 3/10