Barnyard (film)


Barnyard is a 2006 computer-animated comedy film produced by O Entertainment and distributed by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. The film is directed, produced, and written by Steve Oedekerk, the co-creator of ' and the spin-off television series '. The film features the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Andie MacDowell, David Koechner, Jeffrey Garcia, Tino Insana, Dom Irrera, Cam Clarke, and Rob Paulsen.
Barnyard tells the story of the Otis, a Holstein cow who learns the value of responsibility when he becomes the leader of a group of farmyard animals after his father, Ben, dies from a coyote attack. The film was released on August 4, 2006, in the United States and October 5, 2006, in Germany. It grossed $116.5 million worldwide against a $51 million production budget and received negative to mixed reviews from critics, who described it as "unimaginative and unfunny" and particularly targeted its inaccurate depiction of bulls with udders for criticism. Despite this, it later spawned a television series, titled Back at the Barnyard, which ran on Nickelodeon for two seasons from 2007 to 2011.

Plot

Otis is a carefree young bull who prefers playing with his friends rather than accepting responsibility; much to the chagrin of his strict adoptive father and barnyard leader, Ben. After Otis interrupts a barnyard meeting with his wild antics, Ben warns his son that he will never be happy if he spends his life partying without acting more maturely. Otis ignores his advice and leaves to have fun with his friends Pip the Mouse, Freddy the Ferret, Peck the Rooster and Pig the Pig. That same day, Otis meets a pregnant cow named Daisy, who is accompanied by her friend, Bessy.
That night after the farmer went to bed, the animals throw a party in the barn. All the animals at the barnyard are there except Ben, who guards the fence line. Otis is assigned a shift along with Ben, but Otis talks himself out of work. Before he leaves, Ben tells him that the night he found him as a baby calf stumbling alone in the meadow, he swore he saw the stars dance, which reminded him that his place was at the farm. Soon after, Ben takes on a pack of coyotes led by Dag, who raid the chicken coop during a thunderstorm. He manages to fight off the pack until he is bitten on the leg by Dag, making him fall. The Coyotes pile on Ben, but he manages to grab Dag's leg and escape the pile; using Dag to overpower the coyotes. He threatens to choke Dag but lets him go, scaring him and the coyotes away in defeat. Ben falls to the ground, exhausted. Otis is alerted and he runs outside to his father, who dies from his injuries. The next morning, Ben is buried on a hill by the farmer, and the other animals mourn Ben once the farmer leaves except for Otis.
Following Ben's death, all the animals elect Otis as the new leader of the barnyard. Otis shirks his duties by leaving Freddy and Peck in charge of the coop, then helps the trouble-making "Jersey Cows"; Eddy, Igg, and Bud teach a lesson to a mean, fat youngster called Eugene “Snotty Boy” Beady for cow-tipping, eluding the police along the way. Later that night, while Otis is holding Daisy's hoof under the starlight, he overhears the coyotes chasing a rabbit and leaves her to pursue the coyotes and avenge his father's death. Otis tries to attack Dag and his pack, but is outnumbered. Since Otis is weaker, Dag proposes a deal: he and his pack will take various barnyard animals at random times and that, if Otis tries to do anything about it, they will slaughter everyone at the barnyard. Otis decides to leave the barnyard, realizing his chances of victory are slim.
The next morning, before leaving, Otis is informed that the Coyotes took some hens including Maddy, a little chick who looks up to him. Otis realizes that Dag doubled-crossed him, as he was not expecting him and the coyotes until tonight, and sets off to rescue the chickens. Otis arrives in the junkyard to fight off the pack and gains the upper hand in the fight, until Dag bites him in the leg. However, Pip, Pig, Freddy, Peck, Miles, a mule and Ben's old friend, and the Jersey Cows arrive to help Otis. Dag tries to attack Otis from behind, but he is alerted when Peck successfully manages to crow a warning. Otis grabs Dag by the throat and smashes him through a window. Otis threatens to punch Dag like Ben did, but warns him to never return to the barnyard before knocking him out of the junkyard; finally avenging his father's death.
On their way back, Pip reveals to Otis that Daisy went into labor after he left, so Otis and the rest of the animals steal a biker
gang’s motorcycles from a diner and make it back to the barn in time to witness Daisy giving birth to a calf that she names Li'l Ben. Otis then takes full responsibility and becomes the new leader of the barnyard as he watches the stars of himself, Daisy and Lil' Ben dancing just like Ben said.

Cast

Release

Barnyard was released in theaters on August 4, 2006 by Paramount Pictures.

Home media

Barnyard was released on full screen and widescreen DVD on December 12, 2006, and includes the alternate opening.

Reception

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 22% based on 97 reviews, and an average rating of 4.37/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Unimaginative and unfunny, this tale of barnyard mischief borders on 'udder' creepiness and adds little to this summer's repertoire of animated films." On Metacritic, it has a score of 42 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Critics were harsh to Barnyard when it was released theatrically. Most of the criticism came from the plot, animation, humor, characters, though they praised the voice acting and ending.
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel gave the film 2 stars out of 5, saying that, "with Barnyard, another quick-and-dirty 'all-star cast' mess churned out by the digital start-ups hired to steal some of Pixar's cash, the year that computer-generated animation 'jumps the shark' becomes official. Politically correct, anatomically incorrect and ugly to look at, the only thing that saves Barnyard is a writer Steve Oedekerk's gift for gags and almost-edgy humor." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film a score of 1.5/4, saying that "if you want to punish your kids, send them to bed without dinner. If you want to disturb, frighten and depress them while making sure they fail biology, take them to the animated feature Barnyard." Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly criticized the film's plot, giving it a C+ score and said that "it feels like Barnyard swipes too much of its plot from The Lion King."
On the positive side, J. R. Jones of the Chicago Reader enjoyed Barnyard, saying that "it's way funnier than many of the R-rated comedies I've seen lately, though Oedekerk seems to have ignored the writer's edict to know your subject—most of his cows are male. The CGI is excellent, with characters whose depth and solidity suggest Nick Park's clay animations. The laughs subside near the end as the requisite moral kicks in, but this is still that rare kids' movie I'd recommend to parents and non-parents alike." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film a score of 2.5/4, calling it "a sweet and mildly funny movie that will entertain young audiences, but one aspect is utterly mystifying: The two main characters, father and son bovine creatures, have large, distracting udders."

Box office

Barnyard grossed $72.6 million domestically and $43.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $116.5 million against its production budget of $51 million.
The film opened at #2 at the box office on its opening weekend behind , earning $16 million at the domestic box office from 3,311 theaters. On the film's second weekend, it dropped 38.7%, grossing $9.7 million and finishing in 4th place, behind Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Up, and World Trade Center. By its closing on November 2, 2006, it grossed almost $73 million in its domestic theatrical release.

Soundtrack

The film's score is done by John Debney. The soundtrack was released on August 22, 2006 by Bulletproof Records. It includes an original song by indie pop band the Starlight Mints and "You Gotta Move" by Aerosmith.

Track listing

Other songs featured in the film:
A video game based on the film was produced by THQ and Blue Tongue Entertainment. It is an adventure game in which the player names their own male or female cow and walk around the barnyard and play mini-games, pull pranks on humans, and ride bikes, plus party hard. The game was released for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, PC, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.

Spin-off television series

On September 29, 2007, a CG animated television series based on the film and titled Back at the Barnyard premiered on Nickelodeon. Chris Hardwick replaced Kevin James in the role of Otis, and Leigh-Allyn Baker voiced new character Abby, who replaced Daisy. The series ran for two seasons, and ended on November 12, 2011.