Home on the Range

Disney's animation studio, immediately after 'Lilo & Stitch', experienced a major financial loss. Competitors such as the soon to be acquired Pixar, DreamWorks and even Blue Sky Studios were dominating the earlier part of the twenty first century. Disney's features, the once leading studio, were broken. Productions enduring extensive lengths, costly visualised conversions and downsizing of employees. Home on the Range, rather unfortunately, was a misfired product from a studio encountering corporate instability. A western styled tale involving three mismatched dairy cows attempting to capture an infamous cattle rustler to receive a generous bounty that will pay off their farm from foreclosure.

Finn and Sanford's hearts were in the right place, just bordering the rustic picket fences of Patch of Heaven. The trio of dairy protagonists, comprising of brash show-cow Maggie, sophisticated Mrs. Caloway and the stupendously ditzy Grace, garnered sufficient interactions with each other that prolonged their brief characterisations. The rivalry between Maggie and Mrs. Caloway was earnest and provided moo-ments (I promise, no more cow puns...) of friendship during times of great need. The plot itself was punctual and cohesive, with functional albeit predictable beats found in any other Disney animation. Voice acting was solid for the most part, particularly Dench, Tilly and Gooding Jr., whom all suited their characters. Barr was too bullish, and lacked the subtlety required to tenderise Maggie's emotional conflicts. However, the biggest asset Home on the Range withholds, is the throwback to the classic cartoon style. The humour is refreshingly slapstick and acquitted itself with nothing more than a fun adventure. It'll keep children entertained, adults not so much.

As I said previously, this feature was produced during a rough period of time for the studio, and consequently resulted in a functional yet unmemorable tale. Despite the modesty of the leading "three maids are milking", their journey is hugely unmemorable, lacking the originality and timelessness of previous productions. Yes, questing across the dusty Grand Canyon, encountering perilous flash floods and traversing exhilarating mines, should've made for an exciting comedic adventure. Alas, the milk in these cows had expired. The narrative lacked innovation, the dialogue lacked energy and the animation itself lacked charm. Even Menken's original composition, featuring "all-time favourites" including *cough* "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again" and the painful antagonist's theme tune "Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo" resembled outdated traits that Disney failed to avoid. Hypnotising cows into an LSD trip by expressively yodeling at them, should've been one of the most unforgettable scenes the studio had pumped out. Sadly, not the case. Everything was shoved into a minuscule runtime, and the breezy pace emphasised the one-dimensional aesthetic.

Home on the Range is, undoubtedly, formulaic. Whether the formula for this dairy goodness is to your taste, is clearly down to personal preference. Undeniably though, the sour aftertaste of a studio no longer caring was beginning to present itself. A feature with the consistency of semi-skimmed milk, avoiding the delectability of full fat wholesomeness. Udderly disappointing.

Ignore the hate if you fell in love with this film. I just watched it and I thought it was fine. Yes, it has it's issues, but I wouldn't consider it as a terrible film from Disney.

Home on the Range was kinda unique. It had nice animation and the characters like Maggie, Mrs. Calloway, Grace and Lucky Jack are pretty good.

The villain, Alameda Slim was pretty weak. He's so dang goofy it's hard to take him seriously.

Here are some things I would change about Home on the Range:

1. Have the characters be more interesting. Don't make them flat.

2. Delate some of the cow jokes. There are too many of them.

3. Make Slim a better villain.

4. The yodeling song could use some work with lyrics.

Overall, this is an okay Disney film. I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's okay.

While the film wasn't a total dud a la "Treasure Planet," it's certainly no "Little Mermaid," or even "Emperor's New Groove," which I consider the best of the latest crop of cartoons for its hip sensibility. "Home on the Range" suffers from an unoriginal and unfunny script, although it is not tediously poor or Saturday-morning-cartoon simple. To begin, there is an overabundance of plastic-playset ready characters (literally a whole farm full): the trio of bounty-hunting heifers played by Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, and Jennifer Tilly; the yodeling cattle rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) and his three bumbling nephews; the wannabe-hero steed Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr-- who ok'ed that name?); two lascivious bulls; a buffalo bouncer; a peg-legged jackrabbit; and a whole farmyard of pigs, chickens, a goose, and a surly goat. Oh, and Steve Buscemi shows up too, as a caricature of himself in a purple suit and a pencil moustache. Estelle Harris and Patrick Warburton (so memorable in "Toy Story 2" and "Groove," respectively), had brief cameos as well. There's no time for any kind of character development (not even with a sacred Disney "I Want" song), and the thinnest of premises has the cows hunting for Slim in time to get the reward money to save their farm. I was surprised not by the simplicity but by the unnecessary, unfunny bawdiness of the script (the movie opens with a shot of the Barr cow's ample udders, with her voiceover dryly remarking "Yep, they're real. Quit staring." Crossdressing, pee, and fat man jokes follow.) Alan Menken wrote a few snappy but unmemorable tunes (none of which are sung by the characters, but by the likes of Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang) and a Coplandesque score. The film redeems itself in its art direction, which bursts with Disney color and retro UPA-style angularity. Especially in the opening scenes, a multiplane effect is used to further flatten, rather than deepen, this storybook world. It's an interesting and visually engaging concept that works well for the story. Backgrounds are intricately detailed with drybrush effects that call to mind "Sleeping Beauty;" if that film's art director, Eyvind Earle, had been called upon to paint the rocks and buttes of the American desert, it would have looked very much like this. It's quite stunning, actually, and the best art direction since 1996's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." I especially appreciated a background detail in the town scene: one of the buildings was actually only a facade, held up by supports like on a backlot Western set. Similarly, sooner or later, not just critics but parents too will demand the Disney animated features to show that they have something behind that venerable name. "Home on the Range" will tide us over for now, but a renaissance of Disney is getting to be overdue. The Disney animation department (what's left of it), like it or not, needs to take a cue from Pixar and strive for family-friendly originality if they hope to maintain the integrity of the brand. ***

So, it wasn't too bad. The kids, 4, 7 and 11, loved it. It was a bit jumpy and confusing, but we got some laughs out of it and the kids left smiling. That's pretty much the goal of going to a Disney film anyhow, even though it reminded me more of Warner Bros. and Looney Toons. And its not so terrible for Disney to try something different. It just takes some getting used to. Frankly, I just forgot that it was Disney and watched the show.

But nobody has mentioned the violence. Just like Looney Toons cartoons that we grew up on, this movie was so full of violent acts that I lost count early on. It disturbs me to see cartoon characters suffer such debilitating injuries and the next thing you see they have completely recovered and carry on. What kind of message does this send the kids? "Go ahead and jump off that cliff, you'll walk away"....."Isn't it funny how that man's teeth are falling out of his mouth....."

But if you don't mind Looney Toon violence, the rest of the movie is OK. Hokey, but it's supposed to be. We, the adults, did wish there had been a bit more character development, especially around Pearl, the owner of Little Patch of Heaven, and Buck, the ridiculously macho horse. Loved the voice of the Buffalo and agree that the horse that Buck encouraged to run away was also a great voice. Liked the music too, although it was a bit overwhelming at times.

So enjoy, and remember: its for the kids, not you.

Having only just moved to her new home, Maggie the cow is shocked to learn that it is to be shut down and auctioned off – more than likely meaning the chop for all the animals. With cows Mrs Caloway and Grace in tow, she sets out to try and save the farm by claiming the reward for bringing in an infamous cattle rustler. Ignoring the sheer improbability of this, they set off only to find that several other parties (animals and humans) have similar ideas.

I came to this film as one of many animated films on during the Christmas period and given the genre perhaps had reasons for looking forward to the usual star cast, kiddie friendly laughs, subversive adult humour and solid plot with a moral at the base of it. Sadly though this genre is no longer one that can be judged based on your Shrek's, Toy Story's and so on but now needs to be approached with caution given how many weak copies there now are out there. It is a shame to have to point the finger at a Disney product for this crime but I couldn't shake the feeling that the planning for this film involved watching the good Pixar films and saying "let's make one of those but without the effort or cost".

And so the film was born and it appears the effort and cost has been removed, perhaps making a more profitable film due to lower overheads and a "look kids it's another animated film" marketing strategy that writes itself, but what it doesn't produce is a good film which is what Home on the Range stands as testimony to. The story is a very simple adventure that doesn't really have much to it beyond the basic description above and I was surprised by how plodding most of it was. The laughs are few and far between and the delivery generally seemed to lack energy. The animation is pretty basic looking and seems to have been made by a rather lacklustre committee, which is ironic when you think about what the significance the film holds within the legacy of Disney.

The voice cast has names but it feels more like actors being "the voice of" rather than playing characters. As a result they tend to just play on their voice rather than develop characters. Roseanne is Roseanne but with weak material (meaning she is just loud and not funny). Dench takes her money and I doubt very much if this film will ever be mentioned when discussing her body of work, and nor should it be. Tilly at least plays up her part and has quite a "fun" voice. Quaid, Gooding Jnr and Warburton are so-so even if small turns from Buscemi and Weaver are quite fun.

Overall then a pretty lacklustre product across the board that seems to be content to just take the success that simply being in a genre that we had gotten used to being good. It might amuse young children with its big bright shapes and loud noises but older children and certainly adults will find little to entertain.