Barney's Great Adventure (1998)

A man in a dinosaur costume witnesses his wife being murdered by drug dealers and decides to take his revenge on a powerful drug lord on the streets of Baltimore.

Director:

Steve Gomer

Writers:

Stephen White (story), Sheryl Leach (story)

Stars:

George Hearn, Shirley Douglas, Trevor Morgan

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Fawcett	...	Dad
Jane Wheeler	...	Mom
Kyla Pratt	...	Marcella
Diana Rice	...	Abby
Trevor Morgan	...	Cody
David Larouche	...	Baby Fig
Edouard Larouche	...	Baby Fig
George Hearn	...	Grandpa
Shirley Douglas	...	Grandma
David Joyner	...	Barney
Bob West	...	Barney (voice)
Jeff Ayers	...	Baby Bop
Julie Johnson	...	Baby Bop (voice)
Renee Madeline Le Guerrier	...	Mildred Goldfinch (as Renée Madeleine Le Guerrier)
Rock Jutras	...	Mr. Millet / Teeter Board Spotter (as Roch Jutras)

Storyline

Mom and dad dump son Cody, daughter Abby, her best friend Marcella and a baby on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma. Purple dinosaur Barney soon appears to entertain kids, and when a large colorful egg deposited on a farm by a shooting star is accidentally carted off, Barney and kids start their chase for it.

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Plot Keywords:

basketball ball | tyrannosaurus rex | hit on the head with a ball | punctuation in title | apostrophe in title | 

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Taglines:

An adventure as big as your imagination.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Barney Online PolyGram/Reel Life

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 April 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Barney's Great Adventure: The Movie

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,585,292, 5 April 1998, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$11,144,518, 28 June 1998

Company Credits

Production Co:

Polygram Filmed Entertainment, Lyrick Studios Video, Good Egg Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (uncredited) SDDS (uncredited)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The project was first announced in 1992 and began at New Line Cinema. But New Line eventually put the script in turnaround because of creative differences between Lyrick Studios' Stephen White and Sheryl Leach, and New Line Cinema CEO Robert Shaye and Executive Michael De Luca. White and Leach next pitched it to TriStar Pictures, but turned it down for unknown reasons. They even brought it to Miramax Films, but the studio also passed on it. Eventually, they brought it to Geffen Pictures and the film was in active development there. Unfortunately, Lyrick and Geffen's distributor Warner Bros. had disagreements over the film's potential marketing and production and the project moved to PolyGram. As the company handled international distribution of Barney videos, PolyGram greenlit the film pretty quickly.

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Goofs

At Miss Goldfinch's house, while singing "What's Inside It?", Miss Goldfinch suddenly throws the egg into the air...even though it was on the other side of the room (and not in her hands) an instant before.

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Quotes

Barney, Barney: A towel, please.
[he steps out of the shower, Marcella gives him a towel]
Barney, Barney: Thank you Marcella.
Marcella: He knows my name.
Barney, Barney: Oh, and thank you, Cody. It's so nice to have a shower after a long car trip.

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Crazy Credits

While everything else in the opening credits is white, the title is colored (with "Barney's" in purple, as in his skin color, and "GREAT ADVENTURE" in green, as in his other parts). The closing credits, including the title at the very end, is in white,

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Connections

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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Soundtracks

Barney - The Song
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Arranged and Conducted by Larry Blank
Published by Shimbaree Music (ASCAP)
Performed by Bernadette Peters

User Reviews

The most hated dinosaur in America

Barney was a big part of my childhood. Well, anti-Barney humor was a big part of my childhood. Yes, I was around when it first aired. I am so proud to say that it wasn't the first show I ever watched, as that would go to something like "Sesame Street" or "Mister Roger's Neighborhood". I don't know if this is even technically the first Barney movie. There may have been a few TV movies out there that came first. I don't care and don't want to watch them. I actually heard that even people who are Barney fans (yes, they exist) don't like this movie! A lot of things don't hold up as an adult and this is certainly one of them.

Is this worth all the hate it gets? Yeah, pretty much. I guess I don't hate it as much as most people and everyone will go nuts that I didn't give this a 1/10. You could use the argument that it's just something for kids, but that's not an excuse. The shows I just mentioned were for kids and they still hold up today. The late 90's really was a dark time for movies. It's a pity no one on Channel Awesome has reviewed this yet. I think this actually isn't quite made fun of as much as "Twilight" or "The Phantom Menace". To be fair to those, this really is worse than them.

The story just makes no sense. Baby Bop and BJ barely appear at all. Yeah, I'm not defending them. I'm just saying that the film could have had more variety if it had more than just Barney. They make a big deal about how the grandparents are going to see him. Everyone in the whole town saw him in public! Half of this movie is just spent looking for a lost egg. That's literally all that happens. Yeah, Barney does work in his trademark song at the end. There's much better stuff out there for your kids, but hey, this is still better than Carrot Top. *1/2