Dag is the main antagonist of Barnyard. He is Otis' arch-nemesis and the coyotes' leader and boss.
Early life
Little is known about Dag's past, but it was revealed in the film that Otis and the others have met Dag and his pack before and have been lifelong enemies.
Personality
Dag is a sadistic, sociopathic, cunning, parsimonious, short-tempered, manipulative, treacherous, violent, merciless, mean-spirited, vicious, self-centered, and arrogant carnivore.
Despite his ruthless and evil nature, he is something of a coward, more likely to run away from violence than confront it. So as such, he got the coyotes to do most of his dirty work for him. In the face of his cowardice, he possessed great strength of will and determination and he would end a conflict to cling to his hunger craze.
Due to his carnivorous drive, Dag would do all he could to appease his hunger, even if it meant killing animals. It was even his drive that made him contemptuous as he was, in fact, a real lady killer and he used heavy seduction to his advantage.
Dag revealing his last hen meal
To show how this sadistic desire went, he had a ring of hens' feet from their previous engagement. He acted seductive around the hens as his means of baiting them before eating them.
Dag is very clever and threatening and shows good charisma and mock cordiality.
Dag recognizing Otis
He is especially cruel and sadistic and shows despicable schadenfreude towards Ben being killed by him and his coyotes on the night of the raid on the hen house, and Otis not being able to be there to save his father before he got killed; and Dag made this a sick joke, along with Otis being with his friends partying instead of helping his father. He also threatened Otis that if he tried to stop them from stealing the hens, he and his goons would kill everyone (including the Farmer).
Appearance
Dag is an emaciated and gaunt coyote and has a unkempt, wild look. He is extremely thin to the point where his ribs are exposed and his hip bones can also be seen when standing his hind legs. Despite being boney, this gave him an advantage to speed and agility. Unlike the rest of his pack, Dag has shaggy, distinctive, shocking blood red fur with a light pinkish-red on his stomach and snout, with glowing crimson red eyes and pointed black nose.
At times, he stands up on 4 legs and his hind legs. When on his hind legs, he is taller than Otis on four legs. He also has a short mangy tail with spiked ends. He has large paws with long, curving black claws, black pads on the bottom of his paws, and long sharp fangs. Dag also has two notches that are close to each other on his left ear and a thin whitish-red gash over his left eyelid.
Trivia
- Dag is very similar to the following villains:
- Claudius from the Shakespeare play Hamlet. They are both the uncles of the protagonist (Hamlet and Otis) and they had both killed the protagonist's father (Hamlet Sr. and Ben). Not only that, but they forced the protagonist to leave his home and never come back. Sometime later, the protagonist fights off the villain (however Otis won and Hamlet lost)
- Scar from Disney's 1994 animated film, The Lion King, as they have both killed a clan leader that happened to be the protagonist's (Simba and Otis) father (Mufasa and Ben), they knew said leader from the past and they have a scar on their eye. As well, they did the same thing to the protagonist that they have to kill their respective fathers: Scar jugged his claws on Mufasa and Simba's paws and Dag bit Ben and Otis's leg. And not only that, but they are also Complete Monsters, are rather scrawny compared to the other characters in their movies, are leaders of a pack of canines (Scar being the boss of the hyenas and Dag being the boss of his pack), were ordered by the protagonist to never return after they were defeated by them. They are also both cowardly.
- Black Wolf 2008 computer-animated film, The Flight Before Christmas. Both of them are complete monsters, canine villains, and totally bent on the destruction of other animals, only in Dag's case, it's the animals and the farmer whereas in Black Wolf's case, it is the reindeer and Santa. They are also both the leaders of their packs.
- Koba from the Planet of the Apes reboot series. Both are animals (Coyote/Bonobo ape) who have scars on their faces, are Complete Monsters, and they try to kill a clan leader (Caesar/Ben, however Dag actually succeeded, but was defeated by his foster son and successor, Otis). Also, this is quite unique as Koba is from a live-action movie series, not an animated movie series.
- Sabor from Disney's 1999 animated film, Tarzan. Both are predatory animals (Coyote/Leopard) who killed the protagonist's parents and are later defeated by the protagonists and thus the parents they killed are avenged.
- Soto from 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios' 2002 computer-animated film, Ice Age. Both are the Leaders (Dag is the leader of the coyote pack and Soto is the leader of the sabertooth tiger pack). Both are dangerous animals (Coyote/Sabertooth Tiger). Both trying to kill the protagonist (Dag want to kill Otis/Soto want to kill Roshan and Manny) and to eat their victims (Hens in the Dag's case/Humans in the Soto's case). but didn't get and they are defeat by the protagonist (Dag is defeat by Otis strike him with golf club and Soto is defeat by Manny flinging him into a stone wall and is murdered by the sharp icicles and fall into him).
- Despite the mixed reception of the film, Dag has gained a large fanbase due to his intimidating nature.
- Despite only appearing in the film, he is, without a doubt, Otis' greatest and deadliest enemy and the most evil villain to come out of the Barnyard franchise (as well as the Nicktoons franchise, along with Dark Danny, Ozai, the Rat King and Unlaq).
- At one point in the film, Dag says that his favorite part of the chicken to eat is the skin.
- Besides poultry, Dag also craves beef. This is the reason he bit Otis and Ben to get the taste of a cow.
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