Monday, September 4, 2006

BARNYARD:
THE ORIGINAL PARTY ANIMALS





Children’s animated cartoon

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Kevin James: Otis the Cow, the adopted son of Ben the Cow
Jeff Garcia: his little buddy Pip the Mouse
Tino Insana: Pig the Pig (now isn’t that a clever and original name for a pig?)
Sam Elliott: Ben the Cow, the barnyard’s leader
Courteney Cox: Daisy the Cow
Wanda Sykes: her best friend Bessy the Cow
Andie MacDowell: Etta the Hen
Cam Clarke: Freddy the Ferret, best friend of Etta (how weird is that?)
David Koechner: Dag the Coyote
Danny Glover: Ben’s old friend Miles the Mule
Dom Irrera: Duke the Dog, contender for the position of barnyard boss
Maria Bamford: the barnyard neighbour Mrs. Beady
Steve Oedekerk: her husband Mr. Beady

REVIEW
The very best way to get some appreciation as to how the target audience (ages 6 to 10) judges the movie is to attend a rainy day, matinée-afternoon performance with the kids outnumbering the adults by about 10 to 1.

The very first question heard is: “how come the boy cow has those things?”
Translation: how come Otis, the son of Ben, has prominent udders?
Which I knew because this anatomical feature only serves to confuse the whole thing. And there’s no need for it because later we see some bulls without udders (but with their special parts hidden behind a fence or blocked from view by other animals as the case may be.)

Although there are downright funny parts, a couple of chuckles and some toe-tapping interludes, it is only mildly entertaining and really, a bit of a disappointment.

CLASSIFICATION
for some mild peril and rude humor.

P.S.
Once again a movie with one person taking on several important roles (in this case Producer, Director, Writer and in even the voice of one of the characters, Mr. Beady) is less than the sum of its parts.

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