Barnyard (2006)

Image credit: Barnyard: Paramount

SUBPAR Barnyard swings at times, but ultimately misses the cut

In Barnyard, an animated-animals movie from Nickelodeon, Otis (voiced by Kevin James) is the goofy cow, round and shiny and tricolor like a walking Neapolitan ice cream bar. When the farmer's away, he and his critter buds throw jamborees in the barn and go surfing down a cliff atop a block of ice. This is when the 'toon's at its jolliest. At other times, as coyotes lurk nearby and Otis (at the behest of his gray-cow dad) sluggishly learns how to be a ''strong man,'' it feels like Barnyard swipes too much of its plot from The Lion King.