Otis (Kevin James) is a cow who is a big party animal among a barnyard full of animals who act like humans. But his dad Ben (Sam Elliot) is the leader of the barnyard and is more serious about life on the farm. One day when Otis comes into the barn meeting covered in chicken feathers, Ben is embarrassed. (I’m not going to tell you how the feathers happened!) That night, Ben tells Otis that he found him running in the forest and he took him in as his own son. In reply, Otis asks Ben if he can go to the party inside the barn that night, and sadly Ben says yes.

Later that night, the coyotes come and try to take some of the chickens from the farm and Ben fights them. Unfortunately, the lead coyote bites Ben in the back of the leg which kills him. Then the lead chicken acting as messenger rushes to the party to tell Otis and all the other animals that Ben has just died.

Now that Ben is dead, the animals hold a barn meeting to decide who will be the new leader. A dog nominates himself to be leader but Ben’s helper, a donkey voiced by Danny Glover, says the dog has some problems that might affect him being leader. When the dog asks what problems he is talking about the donkey throws a ball and the dog runs after it because he is addicted to fetching balls. Then another animal states that Ben would have wanted Otis to be leader if he ever passed away. So the animals select Otis.

Now that Otis is leader, he starts making the barnyard animals do wild things in broad daylight, like playing tricks with the humans. This leads to suspicion by the neighbors, and big trouble!

This movie was hilarious! I loved lots of the scenes with the animals but if I tell you about them it will spoil the movie. Let’s just say you should mooove on down to see it!

Rated PG for some mild peril and thematic elements.

***1/2

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