Movie Review: Barnyard

Thing Two (age 5) and I had our regular "date" last week.  We decided to go see a film.  She wanted to see Monster House, but having read the early reviews about scary content, I convinced her to go see Barnyard.

There were a couple of things that, as a parent, bothered me about this movie.  I'm gonna try not to give to much away, but there is a death involving an important figure.  My daughter wanted to leave at this point, but once the "funeral" was over decided to stay.  I thought this was a pretty heavy subject to put out their for young kids. 

Another thing that bothered me were the villains in the movie.  There always has to be an antagonist, right?  In most kids films, however, the villains are often silly, clumsy or just plain lacking in the brains department (think Wile E. Coyote or the hyenas in the Lion King).  The villians in this movie were just plain scary looking.  Nothing redeeming or likeable about them.  My daughter had to sit on my lap with her face covered whenever they were on the screen. 

I'm not sure what age group the studio was targeting with this movie.  I would have guessed younger kids given the farm theme, but perhaps I assumed to much.  Now this is not to say that there weren't any good moments.  We laughed out loud a couple of times at some of the scenes.  Like most films, a lot of the really funny stuff has already been shown as trailers leaving the rest of the movie a bit bland.

Thing Two thought the movie was all right.  I honestly think she enjoyed the snacks more than the film itself as did I.  It might make a good DVD rental if you are prepared to address the death issue and scary villians. 

Have you seen the Ant Bully or any other new family releases?  If so, share your reviews!

Comments

[stefanierj]

Thanks for visiting Mommymatic! I don't have any movie reviews of recent movies, but what you said about villans struck a chord with me! I will say the #1 thing that bugs me about movie villans (especially Disney's) is that they often resort to using accent to show which characters are "evil." In The Lion King, it was British and African-American and Latino, and in Aladdin, it was Arabs...I mean, did no one think it was weird that Aladdin and Jasmine talked like American kids but nobody else did?? :) Anyway, sorry this is a little off--topic, but that's what your great post brought to mind.

[Jill Urbane, The Mentor Mom]

Wow, that's a great observation! I hadn't really thought about that. What is up with that? Thanks for pointing it out!