Barnyard (film)

Barnyard (often marketed as Barnyard: The Original Party Animals) is a 2006 German-American computer-animated comedy film, distributed by Paramount Pictures, co-produced by Nickelodeon Movies, O Entertainment and Omation Animation Studio, directed by Steve Oedekerk (who was also one of the producers and the main writer) with music by John Debney and co-produced by Paul Marshal. It was released on August 4, 2006. The film stars the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Wanda Sykes, Andie MacDowell and David Koechner. Most of the production was carried out in San Clemente, California.

Barnyard grossed $116.5 million worldwide against a $51 million production budget and spawned a television series, titled Back at the Barnyard, which ran for two seasons between 2007 and 2011.

Plot
Otis (Kevin James) is a carefree young cow who prefers playing with his friends rather than accept responsibility. His strict father Ben (Sam Elliott) is the leader of the barnyard. After Otis interrupts a barnyard meeting with his wild antics, Ben has a talk with his son, warning him that he will never be happy if he spends his life partying without acting more maturely. Otis ignores his advice and leaves to have fun with his friends Pip the Mouse (Jeff Garcia), Pig the Pig (Tino Insana), Freddy the Ferret (Cam Clarke), and Peck the Rooster (Rob Paulsen). That same day, Otis meets a pregnant cow named Daisy (Courtney Cox), who is accompanied by her friend, Bessy (Wanda Sykes).

That night, the animals throw a party in the barn. All the animals at the barnyard are there except Ben, who guards the fence line. Otis is assigned a shift along with Ben, but Otis talks himself out of work. Before Otis leaves, Ben tells him that the night he found him as a baby calf stumbling alone in the meadow, he swore he saw the stars dance, thus giving him reason to know his place was at the farm. Later, Ben takes on a pack of coyotes led by Dag (David Koechner), plundering the chicken coop. He manages to fight off the pack until he is bitten on the leg by the red coyote, making him fall. The Coyotes pile on Ben, but he manages to grab Dag and escapes the pile. He threatens to punch Dag but lets him go, scaring away him and the coyotes. Ben falls on the ground, exhausted. Otis is alerted and he runs outside to his father. Ben dies and is buried on a hill by the farmer (Fred Tatasciore), and the other animals mourn Ben after the farmer leaves.

After Ben's death, all the animals elect Otis as the new leader of the barnyard. Otis shirks his duties by leaving Freddy and Peck in charge of the coop, then helps the trouble-making Jersey Cows Eddy, Igg, and Bud (S. Scott Bullock, John DiMaggio, and Maurice LaMarche) teach a lesson to a mean fat youngster called Snotty Boy (Steve Oedekerk) for cow-tipping, eluding the police along the way. Later that night, when Otis is holding Daisy's hoof under the starlight, he overhears the coyotes chasing a rabbit and leaves Daisy to pursue the coyotes and avenge his father. Otis tries to attack Dag and his pack, but is outnumbered. Since Otis is weaker, Dag proposes a deal: he and his pack will take various barnyard animals at random times and that, if Otis tries to stand up to them, they will slaughter everyone at the barnyard. Otis decides to leave the barnyard, realizing that his chances of victory are slim.

The next morning, before leaving, Otis is informed that the Coyotes took some hens including Maddy (Madeline Lovejoy), a little chick who is one of Otis' friends. Otis realizes that he has been fooled by Dag, as he was not expecting him and the coyotes until tonight, and sets off to rescue the chickens. Otis confronts the pack but is easily defeated after Dag bites him in the leg; however, Pip, Pig, Freddy, Peck, Miles (Danny Glover), Ben's old friend, and the Jersey Cows arrive to help Otis. Dag tries to attack Otis from behind, but Otis is alerted when Peck successfully manages to crow a warning. Otis catches Dag and warns him to never return to the barnyard. Otis then swings Dag out of the junkyard with a golf club, finally avenging his father's death.

After hijacking a biker gang's motorcycles from the diner, Otis and the rest make it back to the barn to witness Daisy giving birth to a calf that she names Li'l Ben. Otis then takes full responsibility and becomes the new leader of the barnyard as he watches the stars of himself, Daisy and Lil' Ben dance just like Ben said. Mrs. Beady gets ready for bed, but she noticed that Wild Mike is on top of her head.

Cast

 * Kevin James as Otis, a carefree cow
 * Courteney Cox as Daisy/Biker #1, a kind-hearted pregnant yellow cow and Otis' wife
 * David Koechner as Dag/Biker #2, an evil red coyote, and the leader of his pack
 * Jeff Garcia as Pip/Biker #3, a wisecracking mouse and Otis' best friend
 * Tino Insana as Biker #4/Pig who is Otis' friend
 * Dom Irrera as Duke, a sheepdog
 * Cam Clarke as Freddy, a panicky and neurotic ferret who is one Otis' pals
 * Rob Paulsen as Peck, a rooster who is Otis' another friend
 * Sam Elliott as Ben, a gray cow and Otis' father
 * Danny Glover as Miles, an elderly mule and Ben's best friend
 * Wanda Sykes as Bessy, a sassy brown cow and Daisy’s friend
 * Andie MacDowell as Etta, a mother hen and Maddy's mother
 * S. Scott Bullock, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche as Eddy, Igg and Bud, the Jersey cows
 * Fred Tatasciore as the Farmer
 * Lloyd Sherr as Everett, an elderly bloodhound
 * Madeline Lovejoy as Maddy, a chick who looks up to Otis
 * Nathaniel Stroman as Root, a handsome rooster
 * Steve Oedekerk as Snotty Boy, Randall Beady, and Pizza Twin #2
 * Maria Bamford as Nora Beady, the farmer's neighbor

Release
Barnyard was released in theaters on August 4, 2006 by Paramount Pictures.

Home media
Barnyard was released on widescreen DVD on December 12, 2006, and includes the alternate opening. As of now, the film or its series has yet to be released on blu-ray.

Critical reception
The film has an approval rating of 22% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 97 reviews and an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's consensus says, "Unimaginative and unfunny, this tale of barnyard mischief borders on 'udder' creepiness and adds little to this summer's repertoire of animated films." On Metacritic, it has a score of 42 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel gave the film 2 stars out of 5, saying that, "with Barnyard, another quick-and-dirty 'all-star cast' mess churned out by the digital start-ups hired to steal some of Pixar's cash, the year that computer-generated animation 'jumps the shark' becomes official. Politically correct, anatomically incorrect and ugly to look at, the only thing that saves Barnyard is a writer (and director) Steve Oedekerk's gift for gags and almost-edgy humor." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film a score of 1.5/4, saying that "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." Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly criticized the film's plot, giving it a C+ score and said that "it feels like Barnyard swipes too much of its plot from The Lion King."

On the positive side, J. R. Jones of the Chicago Reader enjoyed Barnyard, saying that "it's way funnier than many of the R-rated comedies I've seen lately, though Oedekerk seems to have ignored the writer's edict to know your subject—most of his cows are male. The CGI is excellent, with characters whose depth and solidity suggest Nick Park's clay animations. 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 non-parents alike." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film a score of 2.5/4, calling it "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."

Box office
As of 2018, Barnyard grossed $72.6 million domestically and $43.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $116.5 million, against its production budget of $51 million.

The film opened at #2 at the box office on its opening weekend behind Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, earning $16 million at the domestic box office from 3,311 theaters. On the film's second weekend, it dropped 38.7%, grossing $9.7 million and finishing in 4th place, behind Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Up, and World Trade Center. By its closing on November 2, 2006, it grossed almost $73 million in its domestic theatrical release.

Soundtrack
The film's score is done by John Debney. The soundtrack was released on August 22, 2006 by Bulletproof Records. It includes an original song by indie pop band the Starlight Mints and "You Gotta Move" by Aerosmith.

Track listing
Other songs featured in the film:
 * "The Barnyard Dance" - Lewis Arquette and Family
 * "Do Your Thing" - Basement Jaxx
 * "You Gotta Move" - Aerosmith
 * "Sister Rosetta" - Alabama 3
 * "Slow Ride" - Paul Calder
 * "Truck Song" - Paul Calder

Video game
A video game based on the film was produced by THQ and Blue Tongue Entertainment. It is an adventure game in which the player names their own male or female cow and walk around the barnyard and play mini-games, pull pranks on humans, and ride bikes, plus party hard. The game was released for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, PC and Game Boy Advance.

Spin-off television series
On September 29, 2007, a CG animated television series based on the film and titled Back at the Barnyard premiered on Nickelodeon. Chris Hardwick replaced Kevin James in the role of Otis, and Leigh-Allyn Baker voiced new character Abby, who replaced Daisy. The series ran for two seasons, and ended on November 12, 2011.