Barnyard
Published by Deanna Hoak August 17th, 2006 in blogWe took the kids to see Barnyard this afternoon. Evan has never laughed so hard at any show or movie ever: plenty of slapstick humor there.
I was a little perplexed, though–good Texan country girl that I am–as to why all the obviously male cattle were being called “cows” and had obvious udders (that gave milk!!) rather than penises or just an absence. I guess Hollywood thinks that female frontal nudity is fine, even on cartoon animal characters of the opposite sex (as long as females aren’t nursing, God forbid!), while male animal frontal nudity is still absolutely forbidden. Barnyard didn’t even show the newborn calf nursing, as any newborn calf would, while it was fine to show the bulls with milk pumps hooked up to their udders–which milk, from themselves, they then got inebriated on.
(Though actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure they even showed the cows’ [that's the females, properly--nobody I know in the ranching business calls a bull or steer a cow] udders; maybe they just showed chest shots. Perhaps true female cartoon animal frontal nudity is too much for them too.)
Personally I think that most kids would be far more perplexed and confused by the presence and use of udders on an obvious bull (I mean, look at this pic. Do you see any udders?) than by their presence and use on a (female!) cow, but what do I know? I’m just a dumb country girl.
7 Responses to “Barnyard”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award for my copyediting.
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Yeah, I thought the same thing when I caught the tralier online. Boys don’t have udders. Are the people making these things that stupid?
But then again, farm animals don’t talk, so maybe I need to stretch my imagination a bit more.
Naw.
Steve: On the trailer, I thought the bull was playing a joke, with a rubber udder attached. I was surprised to find out that all the male cattle in that movie have udders.
It sounds like the animators may have been playing a joke on parents, who will now have to deal with the issue the next time their kids see a bull: “Mommy, how come he only has one udder?”
Still, it’s better than having lemurs hanging out with dinosaurs. Damn you, Disney!!!
There’s a line in the sadly-underrated Home on the Range from Disney where the camera pans past the udders of one of the cows, and she chides the audience, “Yeah, they’re real!”
I learned long ago that much of Hollywood is woefully ignorant of the wider realities of the world, but what’s more, they simply don’t care. If anyone pointed out the bulls-udders mismash during preproduction, I’ll bet you anything the writers shrugged and said, “Who gives a $#@*?”
Oh, that would bug me. It’s bad enough when characters in a live action movie constantly call an obviously female animal (usually a horse or a dog) “he” (Lassie, anyone?), but at least I can understand the storyline calls for a male and the best animal for the job was female. But in a cartoon? Like the above noter said, they obviously just don’t care. Because anyone with a smattering of biology knows that with mammals, it’s the females that give milk! Argh. Yeah, can you tell it’s a pet peeve that Hollywood constantly screws with kids view of nature? :-)
Harold: Disneyfied, indeed. Though having the characters drink their own bodily fluids for kicks is a bit kinky for them.
Jayme: Cute. :-) I haven’t seen that and will have to check it out.
Karen: I really did find it odd. I just can’t figure out why they did it.
I landed here after searching “Bull udders” while watching that ridiculous movie. Obviously a suburban kid, I was wondering if bulls had udders just like human men had nipples. I was totally confused.
How pathetic that movie is! cheers.