At 18 I cannot stand the show, I mean I loved it as a kid, but now re-visiting like I like to do with some of my childhood favourites, I was surprised at how childish, simplistic and annoying it was. I was told that the movie Barney's Great Adventure was worse, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went ahead and watched it. After watching it, it is marginally better than the show, but that isn't saying much. As I have said, if you are expecting for more than just an extended episode of the TV show, you may find yourself disappointed. This leads to my first criticism, and it is that the story structure is very simplistic and episodic, it really did feel that it was an extended episode of the TV show.
The script is awful, made up of truly banal and childish writing, no improvement whatsoever on the show's writing, and the multicoloured sets look flat and dull. To make things worse the choreography in the song and dance routines is very basic, and the songs themselves are forgettable at best, complete with cringe worthy lyrics and out of tune singing. The characters I couldn't relate to at all and as the film progressed I cared about them less and less, Barney is even more annoying than he is in the show, which is a hard feat considering how he is one of the most annoying characters ever. The children have dull-as-dishwater personalities, the grandparents are underused and BJ is just as annoying as Barney. It is pretty much the same with Baby Bop, who I admittedly found cute once upon a time, but other than one or two cute parts where she is trying to find "her yellow blankee" she is annoying and she is sickly sweet in alternative to naturally sweet.
The acting is really not great, and the voice acting of Barney and BJ especially is really uninspired. The child actors are dull, like their characters and can't do anything with the script. Not even the underrated George Hearn, who was so brilliant in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, can save this film, with his character being so underused it is not hard to see why. In fact, for me the only redeeming quality is the magical scene in the hot-air balloons. Overall, a bad movie, it isn't the worst movie I have ever seen, and while kids will love it, adults won't most likely. It doesn't help that the show isn't the best inspiration to work from and that is an understatement in itself. 2/10 Bethany Cox
