The Barnyard Five is a weird, frantic little trip

Is it worth your time?

If you like old-school, frantic animation where characters are constantly vibrating, you’ll dig this. If you prefer things to make sense or have a coherent plot, you’re going to hate it. It’s basically seven minutes of noise, panic, and ducks.

The whole thing starts with the father duck losing his mind. He’s pacing around like he’s waiting for a bus that’s three hours late. You can almost feel the sweat on the little guy.

Then the eggs hatch. The quintuplets pop out and immediately start causing mayhem. The animation style here is pure, unadulterated chaos. Everything moves so fast that sometimes you lose track of which duck is which.

Wait, why is Oswald the Rabbit here?

Out of nowhere, a telegram arrives from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It’s one of those moments that feels totally disconnected from everything else. One minute you’re in a barn, the next you’re being invited to dinner by a cartoon icon.

The dinner scene is just as frantic as the rest of the short. It feels like the animators were just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just looks like a blur of ink and paper.

I found myself thinking about Duck Inn while watching this, mainly because the ducks in that one actually seem to have a plan. These ducks in The Barnyard Five? They’re just living for the next punchline.

• The sound effects are LOUD. Like, really loud.
• The background art is actually pretty decent if you stop to look at it, which nobody ever does.
• There’s a specific frame where the duck’s eyes just bug out that made me laugh for way too long.
• It feels shorter than seven minutes, which is either a compliment or a bad sign.

The whole thing ends so abruptly it’s like the film reel just snapped. There’s no big lesson or warm fuzzy feeling. Just a bunch of ducks, a rabbit, and a lot of squawking. It’s imperfect, sure, but it’s got a weird energy that you don’t see much anymore. 🦆