Barnyard: The Original Party Animals

Is a half-assed nod to reality too much to expect in a kids’ cartoon? I mean, male cows with udders? Otis (voiced by Kevin James) resembles a clown-in-training’s first balloon bovine. The anatomically incorrect cow has made being a relentlessly irresponsible screw-up an art form. If he’s not hot-wiring a neighbor’s sedan, he’s surfing down a mountain or converting the barn into a raver’s haven. At first, tykes in the audience will live vicariously through the barnyard hellions, but they will quickly lose interest when the spree of immature idiocy comes to a screeching halt for a sappy life lesson—and even a tragic death. By this point, parents will have certainly tuned out for obvious reasons, and kids will be too exhausted from the start-and-stop action to continue caring about writer/director Steve Oedekerk’s insufferable party animals.