Monday, October 16, 2006
** Barnyard. Animated comedy.
Written and directed by Steve Oedekerk
Saw this this weekend with the boys. We'd been going to skip it, but they had the preview on when we saw Talladega Nights, and the boys find farm animals vastly amusing (to the point where they collect figurines, stuffed animals, paintings, etc., the cheesier the better), so we went back to Baumholder on Sunday afternoon.
Okay, just gotta get this out of the way first: WTF was up with male cows? Why were there male cows? Conversely, why did the bulls/steers have udders? Yeah, it's a big topic on the IMDB messageboard, but please do not give me this crap about "it's just a kids' movie." In what way does that make it make sense?
I asked that when the movie started and it became apparent that "she" was actually a "he." My husband replied, "they're fake udders." So I thought (silly me) he knew what he was talking about and spent the first half of the movie waiting to find out why the males were in drag, so to speak. The theater was packed (military base, kids' matinee--it's a given), so Carl left periodically to check on the popcorn line. Every time he came back, he asked the same question: "did they explain the udders yet?" No. No, they didn't.
At the end of the movie, our 16-year-old explained it to us: they weren't males; they were lesbians. Works for me.
Anyway. It really sort of went downhill from there. This is the sort of movie that's only for the toddler set, regardless of how amusing it might look in the previews. It's mostly about animals doing silly non-animal things. The laughs in the theater were strictly divided by age--nobody over the age of 6 was laughing.
There was an attempt at a plot--the old cow-in-charge died protecting the hens from coyotes and
The only part we found amusing was when the Farmer****spoiler**** walked in on the animals' party and the mule kicked him in the head, knocking him out, and they had to try to convince him he'd only dreamed it.**** Too bad the Farmer sort of disappeared from the story after that.
Oh, wait--I lied. The boys were cracking up that the writer/director was the same Steve Oedekerk they'd just seen in an episode of Full House. (I did mention my kids are odd, right?)
Notice I didn't go off on a tangent about how it's really not necessary to dumb down movies for kids. That's because we discussed the issue to death on the way home and while walking the dog, with a brief recap this morning before school. I'm ranted out.
...more
Categories: Movies, 2stars, Comedy
Labels: 2 stars, comedy, Movies
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That was my VERY FIRST thought seeing a trailer for that dumb thing, "What's with the udders for crying out loud?" So funny and I'm glad others were wondering too.
I'm sorry Darla...but *LOL*
I like the explaination of your dear 16 year old son about "They weren't males; they were lesbians" theory. That crack me up *LOL*
I like the explaination of your dear 16 year old son about "They weren't males; they were lesbians" theory. That crack me up *LOL*
There was an explanation of sorts on the IMDB: [[The "male" cows having udders was explained in the October 2006 issue of Nickelodeon's official magazine, "Nick Magazine". In the letters page, one reader asked about the anatomically-incorrect cows and whether or not it was intentional or not, and the magazine explained that the movie's director "thought it would be funny for the male cows to have udders".]]
Guess it's one of those times when what one person finds funny just makes someone else confused. :)
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Guess it's one of those times when what one person finds funny just makes someone else confused. :)
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