Barnyard

The Barnyard movie is an animated film written and directed by Steve Oedekerk. It is all about what happens on a farmyard when the farmer is away. The barnyard animals apparently want to sing, dance and play as much as unsupervised humans would. Finally, Otis the cow has to take charge.

Many dismiss the Barnyard movie as just another of many computer-animated cartoons. However, Barnyard is not as trivial as many assume. The film’s full name is ’Barnyard: The Original Party Animals’ and it has songs by Peter Gabriel, Starlight Mints, Rednex and others. The film’s message seems to be that animals are very human in their outlook on life. They socialize, hold meetings and engage in other sophisticated activities when the farmer is away. On the other hand, they play dumb under human observation.

Kevin James is the voice of Otis the cow ñ Barnyard’s central character. The Barnyard movie makes no distinction between cows and bulls in terms of gender ñ this can be quite confusing. Otis is easygoing and averse to serious responsibility. However, his father Ben (with the voice of Sam Elliott) was a barnyard leader who had tried to stop the barnyard animals from buying human goods from the so-called ’gopher underground’. The gophers in question have a mafia-like organization for the sale of such goods.

When a pack of coyotes suddenly threatens the barnyard, Otis finds himself in the dreaded leadership role. For a while, he has lots of fun with his authority. However, he finally has to prevent coyote-leader Dag (with the voice of David Koechner) and his gang from stealing chickens from the barnyard. Otis also becomes friends with the pregnant cow Daisy (with the voice of Courtney Cox).