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
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