Review: Barney's Great Adventure (1998)
Barney's Cat And Mouse Chase.
★★½
You diss me, I kill you. All you've heard about Hell is true! Okay, that might've been dark for a review like this, but frankly, this shouldn't come as a surprise because all the kids who grew up watching Barney has something negative to say about the whole show. Specifically, kids born between the late '80s to the early 2000s. You'd be lying to yourself and others that if you say you never watched Barney.
"Barney's Great Adventure (1998)" follows Cody (Trevor Morgan), his sister Abby (Diana Rice), and their friend Marcella (Kyla Pratt) as they visit their grandparents' farm. Things take an unexpected turn when Barney (voiced by Bob West) comes to life to join them. Cody, initially doubtful of Barney’s magic, starts to believe when a mysterious, rainbow-colored egg appears on the farm. As the egg travels to various places—a circus, a parade—the friends set off on a whimsical adventure to retrieve it, with each stop bringing new surprises. The journey teaches them about imagination, friendship, and the power of believing in the unexpected.
At least to children. You see, with a movie like this, that is strictly centered around children, based on the show for the same age group, makes it a weird decision to be released in cinemas. Especially, if you have Barney, BJ, and Baby Bop speaking to the audience. In a cinema, you're not allowed to talk, however, if you do, you will get yelled out by other people, or might be asked out by staff to exit the room. This would've been better off released "straight-to-video" or even a TV movie. The budget for this was $15 Million, but only made $12 million at the box office. Which was a contributing fact that lead to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment going bankrupt a year after this film was released.
Furthermore, I did have some questions about this film. Some minor questions include, why does Barney know French? Why does he randomly disapear? But the biggest I question I have is why does the dream, Koala Ewok thing, only show Abby's dreams, if it's a dream animal? Were the filmmakers out of money or time? Apparently, in the original script, the dreams of each character will be featured, as well as other things. Which include: The egg was going to hatch a giant bird who misses its mother. Baby Bop and BJ were expected to make a lot more screen time, appearing in the farmhouse attic Miss Goldfinch was originally planned to be a comedic character. The circus scenes and the "Collector" character would be scrapped altogether. Barney and the gang would have built a plane out of cardboard boxes, rather than a log. The main characters Cody, Abby, Marcella, Miss Goldfinch, the grandparents, Baby Bop, BJ, and the little bird, would've been fulfilled by the end of the film. characters would've fulfilled their own dreams and desires by the end of the film. I like all of those original details except for the dream creature being a bird who misses its mother. That wouldn't make any sense at all.
Overall, the final film suffers in the long run as this film had one specific, targeted audience: young children. The film as a result aged poorly because adults who grew up watching this in the cinema or on VHS won't have fun watching this as much other things. If you look at Thomas the Tank Engine, for example, not The Magic Railroad, but the first seven seasons. The show was made for all ages, which allow kids who are now adults come back and watch this and enjoy it for what it is, or maybe enjoy it more than they did as children. In the case of this movie, I can't say the same about Barney. There are little moments in the movies where I chuckled. The ranking i'm giving this movie isn't due to nostalgia, but I because I see that there was an effort to bring Barney to a larger audience, plus, I have a soft spot for movies that aren't fully terrible.