Barnyard (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Barnyard | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Steve Oedekerk |
| Produced by | Steve Oedekerk |
| Written by | Steve Oedekerk |
| Starring | Kevin James Courteney Cox Sam Elliott Danny Glover Andie MacDowell Wanda Sykes |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Running time | Approx. 83 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $51 million |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Barnyard is a computer-animated film produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures that was released on August 4, 2006 (October 20, 2006 in the United Kingdom). The film was directed by Steve Oedekerk, who was also the principal scriptwriter and stars the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Andie MacDowell and Wanda Sykes. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for some mild peril and rude humor. Most of the production was carried out in San Clemente, California.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The computer animated film Barnyard begins with the farmer leaving for his usual day of leaving for the fields(feeding the chickens,and the mule(Miles),ect...).When the farmer leaves, the animals all stand on two legs,and walk around.The leader of the Barnyard,Ben the cow, is holding a meeting in the barn.He's asking everyone if they have seen Otis the cow,hi son.Otis is a big black and white cow who loved to party.Speaking of party, Otis was up on one of the biggest hills in the farm with four of his friends,Peck:the rooster who can't crow,Pip:the mouse who is Otis' best buddy,Pig:the always hungry pig,and Freddy:the ferret who thinks his friends are tasty.Otis' and his friends are about to go down the hill,but Pig takes the branch from under the surf board to eat the apple on it.Otis and friends fly down the mountain,demolishing things on the way.Otis finally lands in the barn for the meeting.Ben goes over the Barnyard rules.Rule#1:No swimming in the pond,Rule#2:The use of the Gopher Underground shop(which is a shop that some gophers own and steal stuff from humans and sell them to the animals,which at that moment,one of the gophers calls Otis on his HUMAN phone saying what type of shows he wants).And Rule#3:Standing on two legs is only permitted when no human is in sight.Everyone leaves the meeting but Ben tells Otis to stay.Otis asks Miles for help, but it's no use.Ben tells Otis he is going to have to grow up one day.Ben found Otis as a calf wandering in circles...lost.So Ben took him in for his responsibility.Otis tells Ben he's just out trying to have a little fun.Ben lets Otis leave.Otis,Pig,and Pip go over to the chicken coop.Otis spots a girl cow named Daisy walk by with her friend.Pip tells Otis that Daisy lost her family and friends in a big flood that went through her pasture.Otis finds out that she's pregnant.Daisy's friend Bessy doesn't approve of Otis.That night was Otis' night to watch over the barn.But he knew that Daisy would be there.So he asks Ben if he could go just for tonight.Ben let's him go,but that's not all that's going to happen.Otis and friends are partying like no tomorrow.Occasionally they had a episode with a pizza guy.But then.coyotes came.Led by the meanest,most baddest coyote around,Dag.He sneaks into the barnyard and goes to the coop.Ben finds Dag and his friends threatening the chickens.Ben fights them off,but used all of his strength doing it.Etta the chicken tells Otis that somethings wrong with Ben.Otis rushes out of the barn and finds Ben lying on the ground.He looks at Otis,as if to say something,but then passes away.
The next morning the farmer buries Ben saying he was a good cow.Everyone pays there respect for Ben.Otis is too sad and guilty to go near his father's grave.Maddy the chick catches up to Otis to try and cheer him up.Back in the barn, the other animals are deciding who is going to be the next leader of the barnyard.Miles tells them all about Ben wanting Otis to take responsibility after he's gone.Otis returns to the Barnyard to find it's out of control.Otis starts dancing around as well.The farmer sees the animals on two legs and dancing.So Miles gives him a good kick in the head.Otis puts the farmer under a tree with a branch next to him to make it look like a branch had hit him..That night,Otis goes out for Coyote Duty.He spots the Jersey Cows watching a boy tip a cow.The leader of the Jersey Cows, Eddy, hates seeing cows being pushed around.So Otis and the Cows take the Beady car out for a little Jersey Joyride.They find where the boy lives and sneak into his room, and knock him out of his bed,saying "That's called boy tipping-ha,ha,ha".Otis goes back to Coyote Duty, but he hears coyote howls in the distance.He runs off to find the coyotes prowling around.Dag stops Otis and makes a deal with him:Otis lets Dag have some chickens, or else he'll kill Otis.Otis agrees.But, he feels like a big coward.So the next day,Otis starts to leave since he doesn't think he's a good leader.But the Duke the dog tells him that the coyotes have taken Maddy the baby chick,Etta, and her friends.Otis sets alone to find the coyotes.Otis fins the junkyard,but the coyotes run him down.Otis' friends appear and help fend off the coyotes.Otis gets Dag into his grip,but lets him go thinking it wouldn't be the right thing to do.Otis hears that Daisy's in labor.So he and the barnyard gang steal some motorcycles and joyride back home.Daisy names her son Ben,since Ben passed away.Otis and Daisy become parents,and all the other animals live happily ever after. Except for Mrs. Beady, who finds that Wild Mike, a huge ball of fur, is dancing on her head. {{Spoilers End Here})
[edit] Box office
- Grossed $16 million its opening weekend.
- It made $72 million all together.
[edit] Reviews
The film has a 24% rating at rottentomatoes.com, but has a number of advocates, including Michael Medved, who gave Barnyard four stars (out of four) calling it "..hilarious, thrilling..", and "..flat out one of the year's best films."[1].
[edit] Controversy
It should be noted that in the real world a male bovine is called a bull or a steer and does not have an udder. However in this film, "male cows" have udders, which has been a subject of jokes in reviews ever since the trailers came out, some reviewers jokingly reffering to it as a bovine Transamerica. This is, however, not the first time cattle have been portrayed in this way. In the United Kingdom, Boddington's Ale featured an animated "male cow" in some of its 1990s advertising, and recent computer animated adverts for Anchor butter portray two "male cows" as having udders.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Animal | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Kevin James | Male cow | Otis |
| Courteney Cox | Female cow | Daisy |
| Sam Elliott | Male cow | Ben |
| Danny Glover | Male donkey | Miles |
| Andie MacDowell | Hen chicken | Etta |
| Wanda Sykes | Female cow | Bessy |
| Jeff Garcia | Male mouse | Pip |
| Rob Paulsen | Rooster, male gopher, and pizza delivery boy | Peck/Gopher/Pizza Guy |
| Cam Clarke | Male ferret | Freddy |
| Tino Insana | Male pig | Pig |
| Dom Irrera | Male sheepdog | Duke |
| David Koechner | Male coyote | Dagger |
| Madeline Lovejoy | Female chick | Maddy |
| S. Scott Bullock | Male cow | Eddie |
| Maurice LaMarche | Male cow | Igg |
| John DiMaggio | Male cow | Budd |
| Maria Bamford | Human | Mrs. Beady |
| Steve Oedekerk | Human boy/Human male adult/Various animals | Son of the Beadys/Mr. Beady/Additional animals |
| Bernie Mac | Rooster | Root |
| Paul Butcher | Rooster | Elvis- Singing Chicken |
[edit] Production
[edit] Technical info
Complex scenes in Barnyard were rendered using high-performance 64-bit computing solutions from Sun Microsystems, based on a 620-node computer grid, including SunFire x64 servers. [2] It was Nickelodeon's most technically challenging animated film, which included vast landscapes with realistic rendering of lighting, as well as complex scenes with over 200 characters.
The switch to from a Dell/Microsoft Windows renderfarm to a Sun/Linux render farm occurred in the midway of the production [3], when the schedules began to slip and the management recognized that the horsepower based on 32-bit hardware was insufficient, so that the release date had to be rescheduled to autumn. Due to Sun solution, the release has eventually been shifted back to summertime.
Over 180 characters were rigged for animation [4] with rigs being capable of two and four leg stances and walk cycles, squash and stretch, procedural secondary animation of flesh and hair, and motion capture from Omation's 22-camera Vicon mocap stage.
The key software applications run on Sun servers included Avid Technology's Softimage XSI animation software, Mental Ray rendering software, and Eyeon's Digital Fusion digital compositing software.
[edit] Trivia
- A TV series based on the movie will premiere in 2007. [citation needed]
- A Barnyard video game based on the movie came out in July 2006 produced by Blue Tongue.
- The movie was originally going to be released on January 13, 2006 then October 6, 2006 then July 28, 2006, but was switched to August 4, 2006 with The Ant Bully moving to July 28, 2006.
- The film's tagline is "What happens in the barn stays in the barn", an obvious parody of the Godfather line, "What happens in the family stays in the family" and the Vegas tagline "What Happens in Vegas stays in Vegas".
- The movie depicts all cattle, both male and female, with udders regardless of their apparent sex, which some reviewers have complained and joked about.
- The dartboard in the barn is a picture of Colonel Sanders
- One of the chicks in the film pays homage to the Mr. Hyde-esque transformation of Tweety Bird.
- In a scene Ben the Cow plays a cover of Tom Petty's hit song "I Won't Back Down." Short instrumentals are played throughout the film. "Slow Ride" from Foghat is played as the animals ride on a motorcycle at night.
- The cellphone Otis has during the meeting in the barnyard, receiving a call from the gophers is a Motorola V3X
- The rules set down by Ben are reminiscent of those set down in George Orwell's classic tale of Barnyard rebellion, Animal Farm.
[edit] External links
- The movie's official website
- The movie's official website at Nick.com
- Summary on comingsoon.net
- Production costs
- Barnyard at the Internet Movie Database
- Barnyard at Rotten Tomatoes
