O Segredo dos Animais

This film is about a group of party loving animals on a farm. The leader, Otis, have to lead the group to party and to fight the evil coyotes that threaten to kill all the kens on the farm.

Let me start off by pointing out the only single good thing about this film. The background colours are all soft colours, which means that the animation is generally pleasant to look at.

Then the bad things about the movie. First, the cows in the movie are all gender confused. It took me a while to realise that the "cows" are in fact "cows" but oxen. The story is simply non existent. The filmmakers simply get a group of speaking animals to dance. That's all the story there is. The supposedly touching subplot of Ben the dying to make Otis (or is it a she?) realise that he has to grow up is laughable and poorly built up. the character development is poor, and I do not care for any of the characters.

The worst of all, is that the film shows a group of cows stealing a car for joy riding. They keep drinking, and then when they got chased by the police, they speed up and say they cannot stop the car. After all the delinquency, there is no mention whatsoever that these behaviour are in fact wrong. They all got away with it. What kind of message are we sending to the kids? Are we telling them these behaviours are OK and justifiable? Most of the animations have a great plot and some moral teachings. Look at Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Over The Hedge. However, this film does not have any. Barnyard fails to engage the viewers. It is so bad that you have to see it to believe it.

My husband and I have watched this movie with all five of our grand kids - which means we've seen it over 20 times. I am not exaggerating. The grand kids love it, quote it, and ask to see it every time they are at our house. We adults love it too. I do not understand the negative reviews. This is a great story.

I find it hilarious that so many people are gnashing their teeth and saying,"it's just a copy of The Lion King". This type of story didn't start in 1994 - the plot is ancient, with even Disney admitting that it was based on some of their earlier films, Hamlet and - get this - Exodus from the Bible (not including the fact that it was alleged that the whole movie was stolen from "Kimba the White Lion, but that's another matter). So, the genre is several millennia old. If people are going to accuse "Barnyard" of plagiarism, they should at least check the original source material before throwing stones.

Anyway, onto the film. I thought it was lightweight, but had some very funny parts. Thankfully, my children (13 and 8) are able to separate fact from fiction, so the images of bulls with udders, getting loaded on milk, stealing a car and evading the police whilst joyriding probably won't have too much of a negative impact on their lives. However, if, when they're older, they fall into the company of a gang of cows with attitude and a propensity for car theft, I'll know who to blame.

Some people really need to lighten up.

Dear Friends,

My name is Huri, I have a 6 years old who loves animated movies. every day he asks me to go out to shop movies, he has almost all animated products of different company. me and my husband watch all movies with him several times. Sometimes he watch movies in till midnight while he is using a headphone to avoid disturbing others.

A few months ago I bought "BARN YARD" cartoon for him, he asked me that are all cows female including Otis and Ben? If yes, why their characters are male? - in this case he watched the movie alone because I was cooking. I asked him why? he answered me that because Ben and Otis have TEAT such as Daisy! me and my husband watch the film with him and find out that he is correct! we surprise so much, then I check the site and understand that even though any where in site is mentioned that both of them and Jasi's cows are male but they have teat? As you know that is impossible! how you can explain it? as you know only and only females have teat in any kind of animals that feed their babies. please describe it. perhaps Mr. Oedekerk wants to tell another thing!

We kindly ask Mr. Oedekerk and other friends to give us explanation to understand the meaning.

Best regards Huri, Hamze (My husband) and Saman (our son)

To the lady who wrote the first review, get over it! This is a movie, one with talking animals, and you are worried about the udderly silliest things. So what? Did you want to see the big male organs on the male cows? I think that is why there is an udder on all the cows, to avoid this uncomfortable situation. Or maybe it was just something silly to do, at any rate if you had to have a heart to heart with your kids about male and female animals, I am sorry for them. They need parents who can relax a bit.

The film is OK. My two boys liked it and I did too. It is not a classic, but a good film. Overall a barnyard remake of Lion King with a lot of the same plot elements. Kevin James character is great and there is a lot of good humor for much of the film.