But nonetheless, I choose to ask it. Why does the iconic Nickelodeon character Otis, the male-identified cow of the movie and TV franchise Barnyard, have udders? Although this question about a cartoon character may seem trivial, the juxtaposition of logic and design choice made here lends itself well to discussing the larger implications of why artists may choose to make certain design choices.
There are three major theories that should be considered when discussing the subject of the udders, but the most obvious to dissect is the argument for aesthetics. Indeed, the image of a cow is one that is readily identified by people of all ages, and can be identified as a regular barnyard animal as soon as a child learns the first verse to Old McDonald.
A cow, in a sense, has a certain cultural capital that a bull does not. As such, the designers of Otis may have simply chosen to create a cow main character because it felt or looked right in relation to the plot and aesthetics of the movie they were creating. Personal aesthetic interests or values is an intuitive justification for why the character is designed the way he is, but there are certainly more nuanced frameworks to consider.
Likewise, the second reason that Otis may be designed this way considers the overall purpose of the film. The film is a comedy, of course, and having a male cow with lactating udders is certainly something that young children could find amusing. Here, we see a design choice to ignore reality for the purpose of a punchline. Thus, this argument aligns best with the genre conventions that contextualize Barnyard.
Whenever the suspicious postie looks around, Otis quickly assumes the cud-chewing bovine position. It's a cute premise, founded on a kind of affectionate paranoia that animals are up to all sorts of mischief when we humans aren't looking. In this case, that mischief involves taking the mickey, taking cars for joyrides and holding all-night parties complete with bands, dancing and mechanical man rides.
Otis is a party animal, which concerns his dad. Ben adopted Otis after finding him as a young calf, and is grooming him to take over the barnyard. Sadly, that looks unlikely. Ben is especially concerned because it's coyote season, and a pack of satanic killers is lurking in the undergrowth, stalking the chook shed. These coyotes may be too frightening for very young viewers.
It doesn't take long to realise this is a coming-of-age story in which Otis voiced by Kevin James is going to have to learn to accept responsibility and grow up, ideally in partnership with new-cow-on-the-block Daisy voiced by Courteney Cox.
And so it proves, but fortunately it delivers several surprising and amusing scenes en route. It even manages poignancy following an unexpected death. Unfortunately, despite Danny Glover and Andie MacDowell lending their larynxes to proceedings, the plot is too often predictable and unsatisfying - several reviewers have pointed out similarities to The Lion King.
Worst of all are the intensely irritating scenes featuring a hyperactive ball of fluff dancing to a sped-up version of the can-can.
Are hornless, uddered boy-cows the next big thing in aggressively marketed, reality-displacing fallacies, like Snackwells and intelligent design? Otis the cow voiced by Kevin James , his alpha cow dad, Ben Sam Elliott , and the thuggish band of Jersey cows Otis teams up with toward the end of the movie are all in unfortunate possession of protuberant udders that look like rubber toilet plungers with four wobbly cocktail weenies attached.
Reader, there were times when I felt compelled to avert my eyes and pray for pants. The crassness of the image, which we can assume was entirely unintentional, pales in comparison to the sad vulgarity of its characters and story. The movie opens on a bucolic farmyard dotted with cute country animals.
The look is appealingly old-fashioned at first, luridly colorful and surreally deep, as though looked at through a View-Master. But as soon as the farmer goes off in his truck, the animals stand up and start acting like idiots. The premise is that when humans turn their backs animals revert to living lives very much like our own -- that is, they exist in a state of protracted, excitement-addled, media-saturated arrested development.
There is one grown-up on the farm, namely Ben, an aggrieved manager type who is forever trying to round up the other animals into meetings. If Ben is all officiousness all the time, his son Otis is a Mountain Dew commercial made beef.
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