Barnyard (film)

Barnyard
Directed by	Steve Oedekerk
Produced by	Steve Oedekerk
Written by	Steve Oedekerk
Starring	Kevin James Courteney Cox Sam Elliott Danny Glover Andie MacDowell Wanda Sykes
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Running time	Approx. 83 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$51 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Barnyard is a computer-animated film produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures that was released on August 4, 2006 (October 20, 2006 in the United Kingdom). The film is directed by Steve Oedekerk, who is also the principal scriptwriter and stars the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Andie MacDowell and Wanda Sykes. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for some mild peril and rude humor. Most of the production was carried out in San Clemente, California.

Plot

The film begins with a tough looking bull strolling around a lively farmyard. This is Ben (Sam Elliott), and he is the animals’ leader. Everyone looks up to him and trusts his judgment. Ben asks Miles (Danny Glover), a tough but gentle looking mule, if he has seen Otis. Otis (Kevin James) is Ben’s son. Ben found him wandering around alone as a calf and took him in as his responsibility. No one seems to have seen Otis, and it is almost time for the daily meeting during which Ben goes over the farm’s status and any dangers that the animals may need to look out for. It’s especially important for Otis to be there because Ben is really hoping that one day, when he is too old, he can pass the torch to his son and have him take over running things.

At this point, it cuts to a wild looking Otis with a few of his barnyard friends. They are on the top of an enormous cliff, preparing to “surf” down on a block of ice. It’s clear that Ben’s responsible, mature sense of duty have not quite rubbed off on Otis who would rather spend his days goofing off and hanging out with his buddies. After a shaky start, Otis and his barnyard pals surf down the hazardous cliff and into the barnyard…late to the meeting.

Ben is visibly annoyed that his own son is so late to this urgent meeting. Apparently, there are some very important things to discuss. For one, Ben is very concerned about the coyote attacks on the barnyard. Another thing that has Ben bothered is that animals have been using human products like cell phones and other electronic gadgets gathered by the “underground” (a.k.a., a group a gophers that pilfers things from humans for the animals to enjoy.) Right as he is talking about this, Otis’ cell phone rings, and embarrasedly answers to a bunch of gophers who want to know what pair of sneakers he is wearing. Ben is disappointed.

Later, Ben has a talk with Otis, saying that he used to be the same way. But when he saw Otis wandering around as a young, lost calf, he knew that he had to straighten himself out for Otis’ sake. Ben reminds Otis that that night it is Otis’ turn to be on Coyote watch.

Now, once the animals’ human, gentle and vegan owner goes to bed, the animals turn the barn into one giant party. At night, streamers stretch across the interior of the barn, a stage pops up with singers, and a bar opens (brewing milk and honey). Tonight is going to be extra special because a very attractive, pregnant, and widowed cow named Daisy (Courtney Cox) is going to be there. She just recently joined the farm because something happened to the rest of her herd and the kind farmer took her in, along with one of her friends (Wanda Sykes). Because of this, Otis begs Ben to let him skip Coyote duty. Ben agrees, saying that he will take Otis’ shift even though he has already been guarding the barnyard for several hours.

In the barn, Otis parties and sings like there’s no tomorrow. All the animals are having so much fun that they don’t hear the chickens screeching as a band of evil coyotes led by a villainous one named Dagger sneaks into their hen house. Ben comes up to face his old nemesis, wielding a banjo and smacking the coyotes down. He’s old and not quite as strong as he used to be, though. Although he manages to save the chickens, he’s eventually overpowered by Dagger who then runs away with his gang in tow.

Finally, a wimpy rooster who can’t crow flies into the barn and screams to Otis that something has happened to Ben. Otis quickly leaves the party and goes to his father’s side. Ben looks at Otis, as if he wants to say something, but then his eyes close and he dies without saying a word. Otis is heartbroken.

The next day, the farmer sadly buries Ben, saying he was a good cow. After he leaves, the animals come up and pay their respects. A meeting is called because the animals want to know who will take Ben’s place as leader. Otis wants nothing to do it, saying that he isn’t like Ben and could never take his place. Miles reminds him that it was Ben’s dream that one day Otis would take his place, but Otis still doesn't care. Finally, after a vote, the animals agree that Otis should take Ben’s place. But that doesn’t automatically enable him with the qualities he needs to lead the barnyard(as soon as he is proclaimed leader, the animals start partying). His half-hearted leadership and desire to just goof off, along with temptation from a strange beast named Wild Mike, result in a day time party, something Ben never would have allowed, and the farmer catches them partying and standing upright. While the farmer is still stunned, Miles gives him a good swift kick to the head, knocking him out while they try to figure out what to do.

The animals end up dragging the farmer to a tree and placing a book on his lap and a large tree branch over his head so that hopefully when the farmer awakes, he will believe the tree branch hit him on the head, not Miles, and that he will think he just imagined everything. While the animals are arguing about how to make it look “real” the farmer wakes up again and Miles has to hit him again. Eventually, they succeed in making the farmer believe he was sitting and reading Charlotte’s Web when TWO tree branches fell down and hit him in the head.

Later, Otis has another close call as he and some buddies get revenge on a bratty kid who goes “cow tipping.” They steal a car, drive up to the kid’s house, sneak in through his bedroom window, and then push him onto the floor as he sleeps. As he looks at them in horror, Otis declares, “That’s called boy-tipping! Har, har, har, har!”

They then sneak out of the window again just before the boy’s parents come into the room and find their son huddled in the corner of his room, mumbling incoherently.

On the way back, though, a police car tries to pull them over. What’s even worse is that a camera man is inside, filming an episode of Cops. Finally, Otis and his buddies drive into a field of corn, ditch the car, and then act like they are simply grazing in a grassy field when the police officer comes up, confused and wondering where the perps went.

It’s a close call, and the animals aren’t too happy about it. Otis is getting off to a rocky start. That night, Otis goes out for coyote duty. He is sitting alone when Daisy comes up. They end up talking and she tells him how her husband and the rest of her herd died in a horrible storm. While they are talking, Otis spots coyotes and goes after them. Sadly, Otis doesn’t have the skill he needs to take down the coyotes. They end up beating him up and Dagger threatens him into allowing them to sneak in at night and take chickens, and if he interferes, he or someone else he loves will die. Otis agrees and feels like a coward, knowing that his father would never have allowed that.

Otis decides he is going to leave the farm. As he prepares to go, though, he learns that some chickens have been stolen from the coup. The coyotes came during the day and took the chickens right from under his nose. Otis realizes he has to step up, remembering the words his father used to tell him: a strong man stands up for himself. A stronger man stands up for others.

He and some other barnyard pals go after the coyotes and fight to get the chickens back. He almost kills Dagger, but realizes that isn’t the right thing to do. After a long brawl, the coyotes end up badly beaten and Otis lets him go, but tells him to never bother any of the animals again.

Right after beating up the coyotes, Otis learns that Daisy has gone into labor and is giving birth to her calf. They all rush back to the farm and gather around Daisy. She gives birth to a healthy boy. Otis holds him and realizes that this is what his father was talking about when he talked about learning about responsibility when he first saw Otis. Otis asks Daisy what she thinks she will name her calf and she replies that she was hoping to name him Ben.

Otis decides not to leave, adopts little calf Ben as his own son, and the whole barnyard lives happily ever after.

Box office

• The film grossed $16,000,000 in the U.S. opening weekend, coming in second (behind Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby). The film had competition from two other computer-animated films (Monster House and The Ant Bully). Barnyard earned more than The Ant Bully but less than Monster House (which also opened at number two a fortnight earlier) did on its opening weekend.
• Worldwide the movie has made an estimated 100.5 million as of December 2, 2006.[1]

Reviews

The film has a 24% rating at rottentomatoes.com, but has a number of advocates, including Michael Medved, who gave Barnyard four stars (out of four) calling it "..hilarious, thrilling..", and "..flat out one of the year's best films."[2].

Controversy

It should be noted that in the real world a male bovine is called a bull or a steer and does not have an udder. However in this film, "male cows" have udders, which has been a subject of jokes in reviews ever since the trailers came out, some reviewers jokingly reffering to it as a bovine Transamerica. This is, however, not the first time cattle have been portrayed in this way. In the United Kingdom, Boddington's Ale featured an animated "male cow" in some of its 1990s advertising, and recent computer animated adverts for Anchor butter portray two "male cows" as having udders.

Cast

Production

Technical info

Complex scenes in Barnyard were rendered using high-performance 64-bit computing solutions from Sun Microsystems, based on a 620-node computer grid, including SunFire x64 servers. [3] It was Nickelodeon's most technically challenging animated film, which included vast landscapes with realistic rendering of lighting, as well as complex scenes with over 200 characters.

The switch to from a Dell/Microsoft Windows renderfarm to a Sun/Linux render farm occurred in the midway of the production [4], when the schedules began to slip and the management recognized that the horsepower based on 32-bit hardware was insufficient, so that the release date had to be rescheduled to autumn. Due to Sun solution, the release has eventually been shifted back to summertime.

Over 180 characters were rigged for animation [5] with rigs being capable of two and four leg stances and walk cycles, squash and stretch, procedural secondary animation of flesh and hair, and motion capture from Omation's 22-camera Vicon mocap stage.

The key software applications run on Sun servers included Avid Technology's Softimage XSI animation software, Mental Ray rendering software, and Eyeon's Digital Fusion digital compositing software.

Trivia

• A TV series based on the movie will premiere in 2007. ^{[citation needed]}
• A Barnyard video game based on the movie came out in July 2006 produced by Blue Tongue.
• The movie was originally going to be released on January 13, 2006 then October 6, 2006 then July 28, 2006, but was switched to August 4, 2006 with The Ant Bully moving to July 28, 2006.
• The film's tagline is "What happens in the barn stays in the barn", an obvious parody of the Godfather line, "What happens in the family stays in the family" and the Vegas tagline "What Happens in Vegas stays in Vegas".
• The movie depicts all cattle, both male and female, with udders regardless of their apparent sex, which some reviewers (especially Mark Kermode) have complained and joked about.
• The dartboard in the barn is a picture of Colonel Sanders
• One of the chicks in the film pays homage to the Mr. Hyde-esque transformation of Tweety Bird.
• In a scene Ben the Cow plays a cover of Tom Petty's hit song "I Won't Back Down." Short instrumentals are played throughout the film. "Slow Ride" from Foghat is played as the animals ride on a motorcycle at night.
• The cellphone Otis has during the meeting in the barnyard, receiving a call from the gophers is a Motorola V3X
• The rules set down by Ben are reminiscent of those set down in George Orwell's classic tale of Barnyard rebellion, Animal Farm.

External links

• The movie's official website
• The movie's official website at Nick.com
• Summary on comingsoon.net
• Production costs
• Barnyard at the Internet Movie Database
• Barnyard at Rotten Tomatoes

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