Barnyard: The Original Party Animals: Critic Reviews

... feels like Barnyard swipes too much of its plot from The Lion King.

Don't the filmmakers know there are children watching -- and listening?

This could be the film that snaps everyone's patience with Hollywood animations which have a Dell computer chip where their heart should be.

A sweet and mildly funny movie that will entertain young audiences, but one aspect is utterly mystifying: The two main characters, father and son bovine creatures, have large, distracting udders.

Kids 8 and older may laugh now and again at this ill-conceived animated comic fable about barnyard animals who party like frat boys when the farmer isn't looking, but it surely doesn't earn the laughs through good storytelling or beautiful animation.

Barnyard is nothing so much as The Lion King chewed in a cud and digitally regurgitated. It's manic and maudlin, borderline creepy, occasionally inspired.

Too mature for little kids and much too corny for older siblings and chaperones, Barnyard probably should have been put out to pasture long before it made it to the multiplex.

Adults will get enough laughs to survive gags such as the chickens using a Col. Sanders dartboard but will likely lose patience waiting for the very predictable story and sentiments to slowly play themselves out.

It looks great, and it's bright and colorful, fast and fun, with terrific voice talent... You may know from the opening where the story's heading, but it's a fun ride, and there's a lot of heart between the laughs.

The basically good -- though not very inspired -- Barnyard just stirred up a lot of 'been there, done that' feelings in me as I watched this film.

Barnyard can at least hold its head up as a sharply scripted effort that, while assembled from familiar elements, does not feel focus-grouped and committeed to death.

The laughs subside near the end as the requisite moral kicks in, but this is still that rare kids' movie I'd recommend to parents and nonparents alike.

Barnyard is not without laughs, but they come in inverse proportion to the viewer's age.

While there are occasional funny bits, the question remains: Why should you go see this movie instead of its competitors? The answer is: You shouldn't.

It's quick, it's painless, and there are enough laughs (and a few tears) throughout to keep everything moving along.

With a blithe disregard for anatomical correctness, Barnyard offers the spectacle of male cows equipped with prominent udders while spinning an uplifting coming-of-age yarn spiked with liberal doses of madcap lunacy.

If you want to punish your kids, send them to bed without dinner. If you want to disturb, frighten and depress them while making sure they fail biology, take them to the animated feature Barnyard.

Politically correct, anatomically incorrect and ugly to look at, the only thing that saves Barnyard is writer (and director) Steve Oedekerk's gift for gags and almost-edgy humor.

Could qualify as a case study in just how quickly and thoroughly computer-animated studio releases have declined to a state of inspiration-depleted, assembly-line anthropomorphism.

Barnyard moves with a frenetic energy, especially in the numerous barn dance and chase scenes, that will probably keep family audiences moderately entertained. But it doesn't stand up to this summer's relative bonanza of animated family films. Moo.

While youngsters might enjoy the movie, more discerning tweens, teens and adults will not be as easily amused, and boxoffice prospects look modest, albeit followed by a long DVD shelf life.

Barnyard: The Original Party Animals actually has a clever concept (the animals walk upright and hang out like humans when the farmer isn't looking) and it handles such sensitive topics as birth and death with unexpected grace.

Surely there's no better way to introduce kids to the joys of knee-jerk stereotyping than to randomly distribute cliches among talking livestock.

A re-hash of tired cliches and CGI effects.

Criminal acts and scenes of brutal violence spoil the effect of "Barnyard" as an animated movie for tots.