Tranny in the henhouse

Since the widespread success of the indie film Transamerica last year, I am happy to see the trend of portraying the lives of transgendered people continuing with the animated film Barnyard.

The plot is, in effect, very similar to that of Transamerica. A young, pre-op Female-to-male cow named Otis has been going through the process for quite some time, but still has to learn a few lessons about life before he's able to take those final, major, physical steps and have his breasts removed.

What's great about this film is 1) Otis is not perfect!. From the trailer, it looks like Otis would rather go drinking and carousing with his buddies, play practical jokes on humans, and swim in the local watering hole than get down to the nitty-gritty business of transitioning. For Otis it's like, "Oh, I'll just pop some pills and go hang out with my friends." I like this because so often in films where the main character is transgender, she or he always comes across like such a goody-goody. 2) There's a cross-generational thing going on here too. Otis's father, Ben the Cow, is voiced by the gravely linguistic stylings of Sam Elliott. Ben seems comfortable with the fact that he never took the physical step of having his udders removed. What kind of conversations will father and son have about the implications of surgery?

I'm also excited to see such topics discussed in the context of a kids film. As we all know, there hasn't been a transgendered character in a kid's film since Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And of course in this film she wasn't portrayed in the best of light...one could come away from that film thinking all transgendered people were reclusive witches with a penchant for gray suits. It was all very Brothers Grimm. I'm happy to see that Barnyard has updated this for the twenty--first century.

In the end, this is a film about letting your hidden talents shine through. The barnyard animals can prance around like humans and do all the great things humans can do--drink, gamble, ride motorcycles, attack kids in their beds, and transition. Will they keep their hidden talents a secret, or let them all hang out? It's "udderly" kiki!

sims torture | superhighways! | bea and rock turnin' on | jackie chan drunk on stage incident with english subtitles | israel prepares to invade | painting in solitary confinement