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Friday, August 4, 2006
Don't bet the farm on 'Barnyard'
The field and farmhouse denizens of "Barnyard" are real party animals in Steve Oedekerk's comedy. Imagine an animated version of the Kenny Rogers songbook (with all of its folksy aphorisms) colliding with a Looney Tunes cartoon festival, with Neil Young's "I Won't Back Down" (growled out by Sam Elliott) as its anthem.
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View all photosElliott takes charge as the alpha bull who gently but firmly protects the barnyard menagerie from the scurvy coyote pack that prowls outside the fence. He tries to pass on lessons of responsibility to his adopted son, Otis (Kevin James), a carefree calf too busy playing and pulling practical jokes with his buddies to grow up and step into his father's hooves.
As with all such family movies, fate -- helped along by his infatuation with a new heifer (Courteney Cox) and animal instinct -- forces him to stand up and be a bull.
Writer/director Oedekerk, veteran screenwriter of Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey vehicles and the "Jimmy Neutron" franchise, seems confused as to the target age group. The compendium of wacky farm animals as waiting-to-be-merchandised toys in motion seems designed for the very young set.
Yet the culture of juvenile pranks and misdemeanors and a nightly hoedown that combines a Vegas casino and a cattle-town country bar is more appropriate for older kids, and the junkyard dog pack of marauding coyotes is downright unseemly and inappropriately sadistic for a kid-friendly movie.
Otherwise, Oedekerk (who never explains why all the bulls have udders wagging off their tummies) tosses in plenty of obligatory puns and high-energy visual gags and keeps the film bouncing . It's bright, colorful and udder-ly unmemorable.
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