GO BARNYARD Even an advanced case of critter fatigue shouldn’t stop you from rushing out to see this delightfully cheeky animated tale of a farm full of good but misguided beasts under siege from wily coyotes and their own social disarray. Protected by the wise, brave old cow Ben (voiced by Sam Elliott), the animals, egged on by Ben’s irresponsible party cow of a son Otis (Kevin James), spend their time boogying — until Ben goes the way of all benign parents in studio movies, leaving the barnyard a rudderless ship and forcing Otis to consider mending his prodigal-son ways with only a clapped-out horse (Danny Glover) to mentor him. As earnestly stuffed with worthy message as this sounds, Barnyard, written and directed by Steve Oedekerk of Ace Ventura fame, is jazzed by breezy irreverence and a mischievous use of rock & roll that revels in the sheer fun of juvenile irresponsibility. Packed with noisy action, this isn’t exactly a toddler date movie (even when targeting this age, the studios are going after boys, with a few chickadee sops to little girls); but the giddily indeterminate approach to bovine gender — Otis is as generously endowed with udder as is the pregnant lady cow (Courteney Cox) for whom he falls with a thud — and charmingly sappy adoption subtext lend ample appeal to this decidedly non-Orwellian story of four legs good, two legs irrelevant.... More >>>