Barnyard

Once upon a time a farmer walks into his barn to find all of his animals on two legs, instead of four, dancing and playing instruments. Did he believe what he saw or was he hallucinating? This is part of the premise for the newest animated feature from Nickelodeon Studios and Paramount Pictures.

It’s your basic coming of age kids movie told with animals. It does appear to be a dumbed down version of The Lion King. I won’t spoil it, but you’ll figure it out when you actually see the movie. The head of the farm, Ben the cow (voice done by Sam Elliot) tries to protect the barnyard animals from the coyotes that lurk in the woods outside the farm. His son, Otis (Kevin James) wants to party and enjoy life until something drastic changes it. This sounds way too much like The Lion King to me. Other voices include Courtney Cox, Danny Glover, and Wanda Sykes.

The movie is visually appealing to children and has some over the top jokes that adults will understand.This makes it a good movie to take your family to see, but I had a few issues.

One, since when do male cows have udders? Yes, children might not recognize a cow without an udder, but this is still not an appropriate thing to change for the movie. Maybe the animators didn’t know or research the difference between male and female cows. Two, It takes too long to get into the actual story line itself. It side-tracks a lot and you begin to forget what the movie is all about only to bring you back and leave it again.

I would only recommend this movie for families. It does have a PG rating because of some mildly crude humor and some cartoon violence, so be aware if you have younger children.