FILM REVIEW: BARNYARD

By Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune Movie Critic

3 stars

"Barnyard" comes to us under the Nickelodeon Movies banner, with all the lippy attitude a film derived from the squalling, kidcentric TV network implies. Nonetheless it's a better-than-average animated feature. The movie may rip off "The Lion King" in its story elements. In its bright, cold computer-generated imagery and "hip" references to Moto cell phones and the like, it recalls a dozen other yakking-animals animation jobs from "Madagascar" to "The Wild" to "Over the Hedge." How about a movie where the critters stay quiet for a change? But this tale of a young bull who learns to become a better, more caring bull has a few key elements in its corner.

A creative force behind "Jimmy Neutron" - "The Ant Bully," already in theaters, came from a different "Neutron" alum - writer-director Steve Oedekerk knows how to set up and pay off a joke. That puts "Barnyard" ahead of Pixar's "Cars" right there.

His premise is simple. The multi-species population of an idealized farm acts like cows, chickens, pigs and mice as we know them on Earth, until the farmer's away or asleep. Then the animals become walking, talking, anthropomorphic wonders. Young bull Otis, voiced by Kevin James, is a genial goof-off whose adoptive bull father, Ben (Sam Elliott), serves as watchman for the commune. The animals' chief adversaries, coyotes, have a ringleader, Dag (David Koechner), who snivels enough to put the hyenas from "The Lion King" out of business.

A death scene involving one of the major characters may upset young ones. Based on the reaction of my own member of the Target Audience, who, along with his pal, attended "Barnyard" with me, the plot development that leaves Otis temporarily alone and guilt-ridden isn't cheap and wrenching enough to make you resent it. These days that's a high compliment. Otis has a love interest to make up for his loss, a calf named Daisy (Courteney Cox). With Ben's donkey friend Miles (Danny Glover) as mentor, Otis eventually steps up to the leadership role the barnyard's protection requires.

Most of the gags trade on the animals acting like humans, as when Otis plays mind games with the local mailman. The voice work is engaging throughout - far better, for example, than "The Ant Bully." The choice of Elliott for Ben is particularly inspired: Elliott has a way of giving any line of dialogue both gravity and a mellow quality. It's a welcome contrast, certainly, to the movie's various mule-kicks to the skull (the farmer and the coyotes get the worst of it). In general the violence is a bit much. If I ran the animation world, all G- and PG-rated features would be no rougher than Disney's "The Jungle Book" lo these 40 years ago.

The real news about "Barnyard" is that its male "cows" (no such thing; cows are female) are running around with guy udders. Outrage is running rampant on the Internet Movie Database, better known as imdb.com. A representative comment found on the site's "Barnyard" thread: "I can put up with plenty in movies but putting udders on bulls just ain't right." Or: "It just makes me think that the people making the film are morons and it bothers me far more than cars with tongues for example."

So it won't be held up as farm-savvy in any respect at a 4-H meeting. "Barnyard" can at least hold its head up as a sharply scripted effort that, while assembled from familiar elements, does not feel focus-grouped and committeed to death.

"Barnyard"

Written and directed by Steve Oedekerk; lead animation supervised by David Andrews; edited by Billy Weber and Paul D. Calder; music by John Debney; produced by Oedekerk and Paul Marshal. A Paramount Pictures release; opens Friday, Aug. 4. Running time: 1:23. MPAA rating: PG (some mild peril and rude humor).

Otis - Kevin James

Daisy - Courteney Cox

Ben - Sam Elliott

Miles - Danny Glover

Bessy - Wanda Sykes

Etta - Andie MacDowell

Dag - David Koechner