REVIEWED - BARNYARD: LAST week, when discussing the underwhelming Open Season, we considered the galloping colonisation of our cinemas by animated features concerning dancing livestock, Writes Donald Clarke

Since distinguishing one of these things from the other now requires the keen observational skills usually gifted to cataloguers of various species of sea cucumber, we should, perhaps, abandon any attempt to construct a traditional review and simply list five features that differentiate Barnyard from its legion of predecessors.

1. Though no explicit mention is made of gender dysfunction, most of the cows are men. Indeed, one heavily uddered beast speaks with Sam Eilliot's voice and sings the songs of Johnny Cash. You don't get any more confused than that.

2. The central conceit - farm animals behave like people when nobody is looking - may remind viewers of Toy Story, but it alludes more directly to a Gary Larson cartoon that predated John Lasseter's troublingly influential film by some years.

3. Unlike the beasts in Animal Farm, the heroes of Barnyard - cows, pigs and chickens - fight only for the right to party. All animals are equally apolitical.

4. The animators appear to have set out to digitally recreate the squishy, simplified shapes generated in claymation by Aardman Animation. The results are mixed.

5. No animal gets down to any funky dance tracks.

That last one is, of course, a lie.