 |
|
Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
|
|
|
|||
  Barnyard: The Original Party Animals Production NotesTagline: What happens in the barn stays in the barn.
Down on the farm, the farmer thinks he's in charge, keeping all the animals safe and sound. But when the farmer is out of sight, the lookout sheep shouts “Clear!” and all of the barnyard animals spring up on two legs, walk, talk, watch TV, and orchestrate outrageous practical jokes.
For Otis the cow, that last one is the most important. He and his best friends - Pip the mouse, Freddy the ferret, Peck the rooster, and Pig the pig - are world-class pranksters and always in the mood for a laugh. Otis is in a state of arrested development and quite happy that way.
Otis's dad, Ben, is the cow who makes sure the farm is running on all cylinders. Each morning, Ben leads a meeting to take care of farm business and to issue warnings about their common enemy, the coyotes. (It's a position that Ben takes seriously: “As long as I'm still kickin',” he says, “no animal will be harmed inside that fence!”) Ben wants Otis to grow up and take responsibility.
Much to Ben's chagrin, Otis's main project comes to life every evening. As soon as the Farmer hits lights out, the barn is transformed into Party Central. On this night, there's even a pretty new cow, Daisy - Otis hams it up for her, and she can't help but be attracted to his fun-loving personality.
That world is not for Ben. He's outside, guarding the fence and protecting the farm from the coyotes. When Otis explains to Ben that being on watch isn't “his thing.” Ben responds: “Otis, a strong man stands up for himself, a stronger man stands up for others.”
When Ben is no longer able to lead, Otis tries to keep order but the role of leader does not come as naturally for him. Without Ben to keep everyone in line, absolute mayhem breaks loose and it isn't long before the farmer begins to get to the bottom of the animals' secret… and the scheming coyotes begin to think that the farm could be theirs for the taking.
From Nickelodeon Movies and the mind of Steve Oedekerk, the writer / director / producer / actor behind such comic hits as “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” “Bruce Almighty,” “The Nutty Professor,” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” comes an animated movie that confirms what many of us have believed all along - that animals have a secret life which they live every time humans turn their backs.
The film features an all-star cast of voice talent, including Kevin James (“King of Queens”), Courteney Cox (“Friends”), Sam Elliott (“Tombstone”), Danny Glover (“Lethal Weapon”), Wanda Sykes (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), and Andie MacDowell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”), among many others.
More than two hundred artists and technicians labored for nearly four years to produce “Barnyard” at Oedekerk's Omation Studios, a state-of-the-art facility in San Clemente, California. The result is a film that pushes the boundaries of computer-generated 3D animation to a new level -- it is certain to be admired as much for its technical achievements as it is enjoyed by appreciative, laughing audiences.
About the Film
When Nickelodeon began looking for a follow up to its Academy Award-nominated CGI film “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” they only had to look at Steve Oedekerk's bulletin board, where Oedekerk had posted a lineup of characters from “Barnyard.” "The characters were irreverent and fun, but would also be able to tell a powerful coming-of-age story dealing with real family dynamics and issues," said Nick Movies executive vice president Julia Pistor. "We knew it would be a perfect fit."
With a long history of championing creator-driven animation on both the big and small screen, Nickelodeon contracted Oedekerk's Omation Studios to facilitate production of the feature film, following the same successful production model it had done for both “Rugrats” movies, “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.” This model would allow Nickelodeon to stay nimble and on the cutting edge of new CGI technology, while ensuring that the creators' original vision for the film would stay in tact. It has also proven to be an efficient business model for feature film animation production that other studios have come to emulate.
The idea for “Barnyard” was born nearly two decades ago, well before Steve Oedekerk had made his mark in show business. “I was at a friend's house and his dog was looking at me,” he remembers. “And everywhere I went, it just kept looking at me. Since I am overtly visual I had this image of me leaving the room and the dog standing up on two legs and saying, `Man, it's about time that dude left.' And he strolls over to the cat and they go back to playing poker. It was just this funny little thought but it stuck with me. And it wasn't too long before I thought, `Boy, that could really make a cool movie.'”
 Years passed and Oedekerk became one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood; he had even begun directing his own hit films. But his idea about this alternate universe of animals never left his imagination. And then, one day, he saw one of the characters he had been dreaming of. In an art gallery in Laguna Beach, California, Oedekerk spotted a comic, life-sized sculpture of a cow - standing on two legs. “It was full size,” he says. “As big as me!” Oedekerk was a little stunned to see this image that had before existed only in his head and he bought it on the spot.“Barnyard” is not Oedekerk's first foray into animation. He created and executive produced “Santa vs. The Snowman 3D,” and produced and co-wrote the screenplay for “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Feature. But “Barnyard” is the first animated film that he has directed himself. After having helmed several live-action films, the animated experience was both daunting and inspiring.
“Directing live-action, you are working with the actors, basically setting up for a moment,” Oedekerk says. “From the time you shoot it that's it, you have it, and then you go back to edit this thing that happened in this one minute of time on film. In animation, you're building that minute for months, and in some cases years -- the team of animators is working on the characters to the point of raising an eyebrow a little bit higher, nine months into the beginning of that shot. Directing an animated film is a combination of every exciting thing about creating every bit of minutia, and the horror of having to create every bit of minutia all rolled into one. If you like doing that kind of thing, it can drive you crazy as there are nearly endless creative opportunities - what do I want the trees to look like? What do I want the clouds to look like? It's cool because you can craft everything to support the scene, and to support the emotional moment that's going on.”
Those emotional moments form the heart of the film. “Otis is a character who was taken in by Ben. At the end of the movie he ends up doing the same thing for a young calf. This story is very personal to me because my sister and I are adopted; there's an underlying theme about how great adoption is.”
In a movie filled with outrageous humor and surreal sight gags, it is telling that Oedekerk's favorite scene is the warm moment when Ben and Otis, father and son, relax on a hillside and just chat. “Yeah,” he admits, “I'm kind of a softie.”
The writer/director/producer is also excited about the wide range of tones in the film. “It covers a pretty wide terrain of wacky funny to serious,” Oedekerk says. “The bad guy's a pretty bad guy - an authentically scary dude. There's definitely an adult depth to our story. Beneath the partying animals is a very heartfelt, live action-style storyline, a simple story about a guy and his dad and the family around them, and whether he's going to step up and accept responsibility or be a goof-off his whole life. Come to think of it, that's very much like my life growing up.”
|
|||||
Sitemaps, RSS Feeds & Social Networks
|
|||||||
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Movies Central
Movies Central website is created and designed by Atlantis, 2000 - 2010
All film stills, posters, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and may not be reproduced for any reason whatsoever. If proper notation of owned material is not given please notify us so we can make adjustments. Copyright © 2009 HTML Sitemap
