I haven’t seen anything written questioning why the upcoming film Barnyard has a protagonist named Otis, who is obviously male, but is obviously a cow, not a bull, complete with udders.
Helloooooo?
Why not draw him like Porky Pig and give him nothin’? At least then it would be generic. I suppose the idea is that udders look funny?
Looks to me more like some kind of alien athletic supporter…
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59 Comments
Good point. Also, where are “his” horns, if he’s a bull?
Brian
yes! this has been bothering me ever since i first saw the trailers.
it’s STUPID.
I agree – from the moment I saw the first ad for this movie it has bothered the heck out of me that the bull characters have udders! It’s enough to really turn me off everytime I see a commercial for it.
This makes me NUTS. I posted on this very topic a few days ago, and the thing got a life of its own, and has now encompassed three separate posts, the two followups being here and here.
I’m forcing myself to be done with the topic now, but I will NEVER take my child to see a movie with such an “udderly” STUPID error all through it.
Hah! I thought the same thing when I first saw the trailer. Perhaps we’ll all be accused of being too anal about this whole thing, but it irritates me to no end as well. Glad to know I’m not the only one!
This has been bugging me too. The trailers and press about this movie seem to refer to this character as a “cow” but it’s voiced by a male actor. I just saw the EW review that indicates the character’s name is Otis and they refer to *him* (all male pronouns) as a cow along with his “gray-cow dad.” The little picture with the review also shows an animal with udders. Apparently it just doesn’t occur to many people that a cow is always female and male animals generally don’t provide milk. I thought this was obvious to everyone but clearly it isn’t as most don’t even seem to see a problem.
I just saw the movie yesterday and the male utters were a huge distraction. How stupid are these film makers or how stupid do they think the public is? Either way it is either sad or insulting. I found the blatent error detracted significantly from the enjoyment of the movie for me.
Yup, similar to having the boom mike show up many, MANY times in “Lady in the Water”. It’s not only distracting, but you ask yourself continuosly: “WHY are those there?”
Vic
What, male cows don’t have utters?
What, male cows don’t have utters?
Nope, and they don’t have udders, either.
Vic
This is so funny because my sister just came over with her daughter after seeing Barnyard. My sister said she just couldn’t get past the fact that the main character was obviously a male, yet he was a cow. I googled it to make sure this wasn’t scientifically possible and came across your rant. Thanks for seconding the fact that this is impossible and ridiculous. We share your concern.
Growing up on a farm and now raising kids in the city, this movie irritated me so that I had to write about it. Kids today are so far removed from the farm, it is frustrating for the farmers to be depicted as stupid people and the incorrectness of gender.
I unfortuantely took my mom with us (a farm wife) who was so irritated with the movie I wish I hadn’t taken her.
For all of you as irritated as me, lookup on the web for your nearest county fair in rural america next year and teach your kids about rural america. Farmers are great people who work hard. They may not make a lot of money, but they are wonderful people that work hard to put food on your table.
Sincerely,
Country Bumpkin
I noticed this straight away – cows are females therefore there are no male cows – pretty basic. However, most males of the species are not bulls. Only a few males are permitted to retain their testicles – most are castrated when very young. Once castrated they are known as steers, not bulls or cows. Only a few bulls are needed to impregnate all of the cows. Imagine the mayhem on the fields if this wasn’t done. Perhaps, or more than likely, this movie is saying something about the feminisation of males. Or … I knew a girl once who though pork chops came from cows …
I think they put him udders so the kids would think that it is a cow … most of the time kids can tell its a cow when it has Udders ??!?! So whats with it ? i would really want to now why they put him udders but no horns?
they have utters becuase the producer thought cows were funnier then bulls and utters are funny so it has nothing to do with stupidity
First, if you’re going to comment on something, you’ll probably have more credibility if you spell the controversial item correctly (”utters”?).
Second, if they thought that cows are so funny, they could have tweaked the script to make the characters female and voiced by actresses.
It really and truly is one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in regards to movies and I’m pretty sure it didn’t make nearly as much money as it could have.
Vic
Wow…way too much time on something so insignificant….theres a war going on people….
If you watch the movie again (and I wouldn’t really recommend it) there is at least one bull in the audience when Otis’ love interest is giving birth. I figured the udders were there for some silly milk squirting scene similar to Steve Odekirk’s Kung Pow: Enter the fist where a kung fu cow is defeated by over-milking. What would have been lost by adding short horns and no udders? Also, what vegetarian would have an animal farm? The farmer didn’t make any sense either.
Y’all keep mentioning the “no horns” thing. Horns are sometimes removed from the bovines. Cows, bulls, and steers all have horns if they aren’t removed early on, generally within their first year. And here’s another thing: just like male humans have breasts and nipples, bulls and steers have nipples and an analogous (is that spelled right?) area where the mammary glands would be. It just don’t do nothin’.
While the udders issue led to a great lesson for my 10 and 4 year old, my husband was quite “a matter of fact” when he analyzed the movie. The cows and all of the animals are standing upright, talking, singing reggae, driving cars, tipping humans, fighting and beating coyotes… I guess all of these other fictional details were major flaws as well…
Oh for crying out loud. That’s a ridiculous analogy. Maybe in an upcoming animated film they can put breasts on a young boy. After all, most everything else in the cartoon will be fantasy as well.
Vic
Okay yeah.
I didn’t notice anything wrong with the whole “udders” thing until I actually bought the movie on Pay Per View. So yeah I was like wtf?
What is the reason behind this?
Does anyone know?
I tracked down a comment by the director. Apparently he just thought that udders are funny, so he slapped ‘em on the main character.
Vic
I had to comment on this because for a long time now this movie bothered me and it was only for the fact of those damn UDDERS!!!!!! I just don’t understand why they would do it, I mean kids today believe that a cow doesn’t have horns and a bull has horns!!! I laughed when this very same question was put to an adult and they answered the same thing! All Bovines (cows, bulls etc) have HORNS (unless removed)
I understand that city kids have absolutely no idea of what it is like on a farm and usually do not understand the difference between a male and female animal, as it isn’t really important for them. BUT, when you watch a movie and although it maybe animated, you think they would at least have the right anatomy on them OR nothing at all, especially on the BULLS. No wonder kids today haven’t a clue on so many things because they are mostly learning from TV shows and Movies!!
The udders on the bulls distracted me the whole entire movie and though it may sound stupid, I just couldn’t get past that!
the udders on a male cattle is not right, was confusing to me, not being raised on a farm and then the father bull singing the song, ” YOU CAN STAND ME UP AT THE GATES OF HELL, BUT I WON’T BACK DOWN.” Isn’t this a film for children? They will only confuse the children and some kids will go around singing that song when they should be singing songs such as twinkle twinkle little star. Give me a break!
Vikki
You don’t have to be brought up on a farm to know that breasts are a girl thing.
It always surprises me how many butch (and sometimes seemingly lesbian) cows turn up in the animated media.
Not Looney Tunes though. Shows quality.
Man, I am SO glad I wrote the article above.
I’ve really enjoyed the comments!
Vic
Sorry I reopen this discussion. I just found it by mistake. To tell you the truth, the first time I saw the movie, I too was bothered by the fact that the the male cow has udders, and that he doesn’t have horns. But then I thought hey, what the heck, cows don’t speak either! And they’re not intelligent, they don’t do surfing, they don’t drive cars, etc. So, just try to take this for what it is: a funny animated movie.
my 7 year old made the comment “look those cows have got 4 willies”. I guess otis was just born lucky LOL
Watching it right now, and the whole thing is a croc!!!
Make them real bulls, and make the cows real cows!
Dont make me sit here any longer and explain why to my 7 kids,why the men have saggy boobs like the lady cows..
A stupid mistake, and if they say it was done on purpose.They are stupid…or worped, or plain drunk!!
I made the point of creating my answering in response to this stupid movie. I asked people if they saw this movie and if i was the only man going crazy after seeing and hearing a trans cow.
Im a teacher and had to explain it to all my kids who watched the movie.
My 6 year old asked about the uddrrs on Otis. I told him it was supposed to be funny but boy dairy cattle dont really have udders. he was satisfied and thats the end of that. Get over it everyone.
See how much confusion this causes? There is no such thing as a “male dairy cow”. To produce dairy, you have to have udders…..geesh. A male cow is called a bull unless castrated, at which point it is called a steer. Our culture is so dumbed down that we can’t even spell correctly, nor can we correctly identify male/female any longer….. which I guess is the whole point of the thing.
It watched about 45 seconds of the movie and I could not get past the utters. Thank God I am not alone!!!!
You people are some angry “Mudder Fudders”!
I’m thinking that Otis is a coward and removed his horns and strapped on fake utters to cover his…yeah, right there….to avoid castration. Kinda like Jamie Farr’s charater in M*A*S*H pretended to be a homosexual to avoid the frontline of the war.
LOL, I’m afraid that explanation won’t fly since ALL the “male cows” had udders.
Vic
After googling (my brain), I figured out that the farm is a sideshow for a circus that features hermaphrodite animals. Either that, or its the hormones they put in the feed!
For those who say “its a cartoon, none of its real….” some things just don’t belong on the screen, such as sexuality cartoons for kids. Its not adult swim. My daughter is 3 and thinks nothing of it, but when she gets older, I dread the day she’s conviced bulls have teets that lactate. Why not put penis’ on the cows &chickens for christ sake! I know this is an old topic, but it has always bugged me, especially now that there’s a weekly Barnyard series on every Saturday morning that my daughter watches. I shouldn’t have to sensor kids shows! What’s next, SpongeBoob SquarePenis?
Why stop there? They could have put a penis on the “female” cows and gave it male horns and a girly voice! I know bulls AND cows have horns, but the female horns don’t grow the same.
Well this made me laugh, my youngest brother is playing barnyard on ps2 and my fiance mentioned to me about male cows. He was so persistant that he was right he forced me to go onto google and see if there was a picture of a male cow with udders and the first picture i came across funnily enough was a picture of the barnyard main character Otis. He is very happy now that he was right. I think personally that its a kids game/film and i dont know why people are making such a big deal when its a game/film, well done whoever noticed it but its been made now so stop fuddy dudding around complaining lol.
Maybe Otis is a metrosexual mutant?
We just watched this with our kids tonight. My wife and I noticed the same curious udder issue right away and soon ended up on this blog. Little did I expect reading through the comments dating back 2 years that this would still be a thread through tonight. Artistic license of cartoon characterization aside (animals don’t really talk…got it) the movie clearly paid deliberate attention to genaral realistic detail in all other aspects its world of animals, fur, textues, woodgrain, etc, etc. The rooster wasn’t popping out eggs, was it? But the udders are just a feature that is glaringly dumb. The writer/director/producer’s comments that ‘he spent .002 seconds thinking about it’ is evidence of that, and ‘I just thought it was funny’ is just irritating. But more so is that, though clearly a B or C level animated film, it still cost millions to make, and was overseen by (how many?) executives, editors etc at all phases of production. NO ONE pointed this problem out along the way? Everyone got the joke? And just how did the movie play the udders for comedy? Just because they’re there? What is that, Zen comedy? Sorry. Not even a one-note joke there. To sum it up folks, think about this: if the farmer walked around the entire movie with a third eye in his forehead just because the director thought it was a funny sight gag, would it make any sense? No, there’d be some other group out there blogging about why in the world the guy had a third eye.
Great an excuse for one of my favorite quotes:
“History celebrates the battle-fields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the ploughed fields whereby we thrive; it knows the names of the kings’ bastards, but cannot tell the origin of wheat.
That is the way of human folly!”
—J. H. Fabre
Uh… so, are the udders the bastards, or the wheat??
neither, it’s the idiots who pay more attention to “Entertainment Tonight” than the state of the American farm.
Stewardship vs exploited asset. Until somebody tells congress, their’s no bread. Of course I suppose someone will suggest, “they eat cake!” instead..
@Richard
No one is more surprised than I am that this post continues to generate comments.
Vic
Just a great American pastime… Let them bleat udders
I know this is from a month ago- but this detail drove to such distraction, that it was almost impossible to enjoy the movie! Lately, my kids have been watching the series, and in one episode, Otis actually “milks” himself (no euphamism there) and in another episode, they show him talking in his sleep and he murmurs “No Mommy, don’t make me wear a dress!”. So my best guess, is that he was born a girl, but is attempting gender reassignment. That would explain an animal farm run by a vegetarian, it is really a sexual reassignment sanctuary for farm animals!
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