What Happened in the Barn Still Stays in the Barn
- Macarena Sánchez
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
(WARNING!!! Some of the contents here have spoilers for Barnyard, so if you don’t want them, you can either read carefully or just click off this entry.)
One dark fall night in 2022, there was no Wi-Fi, meaning I couldn’t do anything (not even drawing apparently, don’t ask why); so I made the classic Ultimate 21st Century Loser move: zapping. I didn’t take long enough to stumble across Barnyard airing in one of my country’s most popular kids channels. I had to change network for a while out of shock only to come back when it reached its last fourth.
A few days later, I was able to watch the full movie thanks to my TV’s system, but I didn’t really think about when a year passed and got to write the very first review in MKSC history.
Back to present day, I did this you’re reading right now thanks to the CITY one which made me very curious about how I would do and if my opinion changed. Spoiler alert: the progress is hella obvious.
I will use my structure except the third part will be longer: visual aspects, auditory aspects, literary aspects and conclusion. Now let’s-a GOOOOOOO-
Visual aspects
Animation
Once again, that can’t be ignored given this is an animated movie. It’s not bad, really. It has its own style and does its job: there’s easing in and out, the shaking’s done well and each character has their own way of moving.
Art style
Well, I’ll admit I felt a TINY BIT uncomfortable when looking at the long still shots of the cows. Like the style or not, I couldn’t care less because everything else is decent.
The textures are alright, even though some might be outdated since this was from 2006 (IT’S GOING TO BE 20 YEARS AGO!?). The lighting is good and is able to make a sense of immersion. But I don’t know how the coyotes look more detailed. Maybe it’s because they have the most fur???
Anyway.
Auditory aspects
Soundtrack
The country music with a bit of pop and rap suits the setting -a farm with secretly literal party animals-. Despite that the rest of the background tracks seem like they can be heard in a wider range of movies, they still fit.
Voice Acting
The voices PERFECTLY match the characters’ appearance and personality. They also obey their current mood depending on the situation. The accent diversity is also nice touch too, making it seem like a community.
Literary aspects (the best part)
Characters
For some reason, the ones who have the most depth are Daisy, Ben and Otis, especially the last one. Every animal fortunately had their development which was good; but the only human who also got it was Snutty Boy after being karma’ed by the Cow Quartet (remember when people used to compare him with Titan from Megamind? Lol)
Speaking of antagonists, if you think about it, the coyotes MIGHT have a reason for their actions. They don’t live in a place where someone takes care of them (some sort of dumpster), so they kidnap other species outside to stay alive.
The use of side (animal) characters was amazing because, even though they served to fill particular scenes, they returned in the climax to prove they HAD a point and did superb fighting against the coyotes!
Dialogue
It feels natural, infodumping is only used when necessary and the characters’ lines show their thoughts and feelings very well!
Story, story, STOOOORRYYYY!!! EEEE-
In case you were too dumb enough to tell, this is the best part of the entire thing. And yes, the writing course warped my perception.
The premise itself is nothing short of a creative outlook on the Old McDonald nursery rhyme as I can tell: what would his animals be doing when he’s not here? Whatever the hell they want: partying, dancing, peforming musical numbers, gambling, getting drunk (yes that actually happens) and possibly even dying if too reckless since it’s set during coyote season (which one, you might ask? I did some quick research and according to lapalmaca.gov, it’s from March until August. Wait aren’t those two-).
The main conflict comes up at the right time (around the early beginning) when Ben (leader of the barnyard) hosts a meeting to make some rules clear and Ottis (his son and MC) arrives late and is shown to be quite a “flawed” character.
Everyone keeps gangsta’ing till Ben loses against the Coyotes while they have fun and Ottis has to control the place. After having their respective serious time (to demonstrate it’s not just a silly kids movie), the rest insist on going wild(er). One idea he has is teaching that aforementioned boy a lesson after (literally) flipping a cow (basically pushing him back).
Once the coyotes threaten Ottis, his fear is understandable and realistic until the chickens are kidnapped, making him leave that emotion behind and actually gather courage. I guess the climax is kinda cliché (it’s a fight), but the characters that appeared throughout the film run to help him, and each one had their unique skill and successfully defeated them!
Oh, I forgot Daisy has her kid and Ottis straight up decides to become its dad at the end. A curious thing about their development is the subversion of the love interest trope, Daisy seems to be more interested in him instead of the MC to that character, possibly due to her being a widow.
Conclusion
General opinion
Honestly, it’s such a shame it got so much hate, probably because these so-called “movie critics” saw the poster and immediately assumed it was crap (I mean, IT GOT TWO AWARDS FOR THE WORST MOVIE TITLE AND ANIMATED FEATURE!!!) without looking at the potential of everything else, especially the writing. So yeah hot take: Barnyard is actually a great movie.
“So should I watch it or what???”
Just so you know, I am absolutely NOT the kind of person who’d tell someone to watch a piece of media I like or at least think is cool like “DO OR DIE”, thus I’ll say this: if you want to have a good time (with a nice balance of emotional and comedic moments), then I guarantee you won’t regret it.
See ya! On my birthday (surely)? (I might show some of the gifts in the newsletter >:D HEEHEEEE!!)
