The 2006 Movie Barnyard was Not as Cute as Expected

We rented this movie because I was really looking forward to seeing it. The commercials made it look very cute. However it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

Minor Plot Details (No Spoilers Here!)
The story is about Farm Animals and what they do when the farmer is away. As soon as the farmer is out of sight, these quiet animals turn into party animals!! They walk on two legs, throw wild parties, and have their own little meetings. Ben the Cow is in charge and seems to be the only one concerned with Coyotes that have been trying to break into the barnyard. Otis the Cow is his son who is quite the opposite. He parties, does crazy stunts, and doesn't think coyotes are really a big problem. What happens when Otis is chosen to take over the leader role? Can he cut back on partying and protect the rest from Coyotes? Or will the partying get the best of him? Watch and see!

Voices
I definitely heard Kevin James loud and clear! I watch King of Queens all the time and he used many of the same vocal techniques in this movie as he does on the show. As Otis the Cow, his voice brought lots of laughs and just fit right with the Party-Animal character Otis was supposed to be..

I didn't even realize it was Courteney Cox who voiced Daisy the Cow, Otis's love interest. Daisy comes from some other farm and Otis takes a liking to her right away. Too bad her friend Bessy (Wanda Sykes) is trying to keep him away. Daisy was... boring! She was a very simple character and I didn't really find anything of interest there. They tried to do some jokes with her but they didn't work for me. However, Wanda was a hoot as she almost always is!

The last character worth mentioning was Pip the Mouse, voiced by Jeffrey Garcia. I thought this little mouse was hilarious, and definitely the best character in the movie. He would say some random things that sometimes went over my head but mostly made me laugh out loud a lot. He was cute and funny.

My Thoughts
There are some very humorous moments in this film, especially in the first half. I laughed a lot when the Pizza guy showed up to delivery pizza! It's funny to see how these animals act and the crazy things they do. This alone made the movie worth renting, but unfortunately the movie wasn't that great as a whole.

Drama was mixed in through the beginning, and thrown in full force near the end. Yes I know, we have to have some lessons in a movie of this type... but it seemed the lessons overtook the humor in the second half. Even after the big climax, you would have thought there would be some humor to ease the drama, but instead it ended at a more serious point. I was disappointed in this.

For this reason, I think kids may get easily bored with this. A lot of the jokes that I found funny may go right over the kids heads. Adults will find a lot of the jokes at the start funny, and kids may laugh too, but in the end you'll stop laughing and start twiddling your thumbs while you wait for something funny to happen. I don't like how the movie started out so hilarious, than suddenly slowed down to be filled with serious themes. They should have thrown in more jokes in the second half to keep it light.

Conclusion
I just found out they came out with a TV show based on the movies. Most of the voices are different, but I think I will watch it. I believe there will be more laughs and less seriousness than the movie (I hope!). There was enough humor in the movie to make me think that this TV show could be a hit. This movie is worth a rental if you just want to check out those few jokes that I have stuck in my head but don't expect laughs all the way to the end.

Final Note: Watch the DVD Extra about Kevin James learning how to be a cow. It's very funny, especially if you are a fan of Kevin.