Barnyard (2006)

Male cows with udders? Yup, it has to be Barnyard, the computer-animated movie by the guys who made Jimmy Neutron and no doubt flunked Biology 101 completely (I wanted to say udder-ly, but that was simply too gruesome a pun) . . .

Review by : James O'Ehley

. . . and Otis suddenly regretted their choice of designated driver.

The whole udder issue is discussed on the DVD's audio commentary track:

'Did you guys realize that the cows have udders?'
‘Really?' ‘What's going on with that?'
‘That's odd.'
‘That really killed me, it cracked me up that that became a big deal, because it was so not done for any reason other than it looks kind of funny.'
‘We did a Barnyard demo 7-8 years ago and the cows had udders and everybody thought that it was funny and we moved on with our life.'
‘It's a race of animal that has men and women, but it really became quite the deal.'
‘There's no subtext to it, but I've heard some really funny chat room discussions where somebody will go on and on about like, “What were they thinking? Don't they know? Don't they know?” And then the next person in the stream is like, “Dude, it's a cartoon.”' ‘Clearly, you're trying to be subversive with udders.' ‘Well, the rest of the movie is so accurate to real life, you know, how the animals are talking and running around on two legs and driving cars. You know, it's such a correct world.'

Small children will love Barnyard for its sheer visual energy and spectatcle, but noise-averse parents would probably want to give it a skip or at least turn down the volume. The animation has a preschool look and feel to it, but the plot – involving the death of a parent and the taking on of responsibility and adulthood – is a bit advanced for toddlers. Some scenes involving predatory coyotes might frighten more sensitive kids.

The whole “farmyard animals who walk upright and talk like people but keeping it a secret from the humans” subplot supplies the film's best moments, but Barnyard is a mediocre entry into the computer-animated movie genre at best.

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