BARNEY'S GREAT ADVENTURE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Barney, that heartthrob of the preschool set, finally has his own movie. Entitled BARNEY'S GREAT ADVENTURE, the picture, about following a magical egg, keeps its plot to a minimum. Marketed sometimes as BARNEY'S GREAT ADVENTURE: THE MOVIE, it would more aptly have been labeled BARNEY'S GREAT ADVENTURE: THE SING-ALONG. The little ones, who would be happy to watch Barney sing the phone book, will probably like the movie, which delivers large doses of their favorite overstuffed dinosaur. Those hoping for more than just a long, outdoor version of Barney's TV show, they will likely be disappointed.
The story opens with a cynical youngster named Cody (Trevor Morgan) going to visit his grandparents, played by George Hearn and Shirley Douglas, on their farm. Along with Cody are his sister Abby (Diana Rice) and her friend Marcella (Kyla Pratt). For a film aimed at the 2-7 year old set, the decision to cast child actors all around 10-years-old seems surprising and inappropriate. There is a one-year-old who has a few scenes, but most of the movie features these three older kids and Barney.
"You don't need cable TV to look at on a farm," Cody tells himself sarcastically as he looks out from his window onto a group of pigs. "You'll have scenery to look at."
Thanks to a little water, the girls' toy Barney turns into a real-life one, who sings and dances various short numbers. Cody thinks he's way too cool for Barney, but - surprise - by the end of the movie, he will be hugging him and singing-along too.
Even allowing for the lack of a real script, the actors demonstrate very little acting talent. With the humans getting more screen time than Barney, their weakness drags down the movie considerably. And then there's the overall look of the picture. As filmed by Sandi Sissel, normally a television cinematographer, the multicolored sets look flat and dull. Only in the magical scene of the host of hot-air balloons does Sissel rise above the drab.
The movie does have its silly, little delights. Baby Bop keeps appearing out of nowhere to search for her missing yellow "blankee." She asks the audience where it is, and sure enough, someone moves it just before Baby Bop can find it.
BARNEY'S GREAT ADVENTURE runs just 1:15. It is rated G and is appropriate for all ages.
My son Jeffrey, almost 9, said that at his age he "kind of liked" the movie, but that he suspected younger kids would like it. Jeffrey's biggest complaint was that there were way too many songs.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews