The plot follows Barney, along with three young children named Cody, Abby, and Marcella, as they discover a magical egg in a barn.

The film was written by Stephen White, directed by Steve Gomer, produced by Sheryl Leach and Lyrick Studios and released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment on March 27, 1998, at Radio City Music Hall in New York and worldwide on April 3, 1998, in the United States and Canada at the height of Barney's popularity.

That night after dinner, the whole family is outside the front porch where Cody further discusses how Barney was in their barn and was not just a little doll.

After they return the egg to the barn, it finally hatches into a koala-like being named Twinken who shows everyone Abby's dream, then Barney's.

Word of a Barney film first arose in November 1992 when Debbie Ries, sales director for The Lyons Group said plans for a movie was in the works.

[citation needed] Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, stated that he was offered $1.5 million to direct Barney’s Great Adventure after the underground success of The Spirit of Christmas.

According to Parker, producers believed his ability to create humorous content with children made him a suitable choice for the project.

[4] It was originally going to be distributed worldwide by Geffen Pictures through Warner Bros. and produced by Sheryl Leach and Dennis DeShazer.

The film was a great opportunity to open new storylines and environments so that children travel to new places with their friend Barney.

[citation needed] Leach adds that the film allowed them to "take the familiar Barney and put him outdoors and in other very different settings from his traditional environments.

"[citation needed] The film was shot from July 1997 to October 1997[8][2] on locations outside Montreal, Canada, including the renowned Ste.

[10] In the original script, the egg was going to hatch a giant bird who misses its mother, Baby Bop and BJ were expected to make a lot more screen time, appearing in the farmhouse attic, but those scenes were soon scrapped, as director Steve Gomer claimed the scenes to be "unaffordable", Miss Goldfinch was originally planned to be a comedic character, as opposed to the more subdued character of the final film, the circus scenes and the "Collector" character were not in the original drafts, as well as rather than using a log, Barney and the gang would have built a plane out of cardboard boxes, and the film originally saw the main characters each have their own dreams and desires fulfilled by the end of the film.

[11] Barney's Great Adventure received mixed to negative reviews from film critics, owing to it being based on the aforementioned television program which is aimed for young children aged 2–7, the growing popularity of "anti-Barney humor", and the general unpopularity of the Barney series outside of its target audience of preschoolers.

"[14] Another review, from the Los Angeles Times, read: "The creators of the great purple scourge, Barney the Dinosaur, have an unspoken contract with parents palatable for all involved: We buy their videos and an occasional plush toy for our 3- and 4-year-olds and make Barney's brain trust obscenely wealthy; they in turn create benignly lobotomized entertainment that holds our non-demanding kids in thrall; our kids watch TV and allow us a few precious minutes of peace.

The most important element is parental trust in Barney to be blandly wholesome, so that we have to endure only a few seconds of it while we cue up the VCR for our tykes.

'Barney's Great Adventure: The Movie,' the first theatrical film featuring the green-bellied beast, takes that big old fat foot of Barney's and stomps that contract beyond recognition.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Barney's friends are big and small / They come from lots of places / But after this film, their parents / Will be left with pained faces".

[19] By the end of its run, the film grossed $12,218,638 in the domestic box office, falling short of its $15 million budget.