Well, everyone, welcome back to my new monthly segment that I just started on this blog a couple months ago, called Flight Into The World Of Walt Disney Animation Studios/Disney/Pixar, a segment that I’ve added to my movie reviewing set in which, once a month, I take an animated film from one of those two animated film libraries, whether it be an older film, or a newer one, and review it. Now, for those of you that have seen a certain newer Disney/Pixar film that was just released earlier this month, or at least aware that that one’s already out, I bet you’re all wondering why I haven’t seen, and/or am reviewing that film this month. Well, fear not, for I am saving that review for next month, since I was planning to see that one closer to the time of my birthday that occurs then. Anyway, in the meantime, for this month, we are going to be reviewing a Disney animated film that was released during the time that this animation company was simply known as Walt Disney Pictures. Of course, keep in mind that this was just a couple years before the Walt Disney Company bought out Pixar for $7.4 billion, and John Lasseter renamed this animation company Walt Disney Animation Studios, and, thus, became the Chief Creative Officer of both Disney/Pixar, and Walt Disney Animation Studios for a long while. Just two years before all that transpired, however, the Walt Disney Company released a lesser known Disney animated film that ended up being infamous for one thing in particular. That being that this Disney animated film was a flop. As a result of this film, along with a string consisting of a few other Disney animated films released shortly before it, being flops as well, except for Lilo & Stitch, and likely even Brother Bear, it ended up killing off hand-drawn animation for the next five years, until Disney, again, under new leadership, released The Princess & The Frog in 2009. So now, let’s go back to 2004, when Disney was still under the era of Michael Eisner, before he apparently got ousted from Disney over a year later following this film’s release. Ladies, and gentlemen, I present to you all my review of Disney’s last hand-drawn animated feature for the next five years, the one, and only, Disney’s 45th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon, Home On The Range.
Plot: Shortly after Maggie the cow (Rosanne Barr), is taken to a farm by the name of Patch Of Heaven, Pearl (Carole Cook), the owner of the farm, is informed by Sheriff Sam Brown (Richard Riehle) that her farm will be auctioned off in three days, unless she can somehow pay the bank $750 by then. After Maggie hears of a way in which one can collect that same amount, she, along with two other cows, Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench), and Grace (Jennifer Tilly) set out to save the farm. With the help of some newer friends that they encounter along the way, such as an egotistical horse named Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), and a rabbit named Lucky Jack (Charles Haid), can they either get the reward, and/or stop a greedy outlaw named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), and his henchmen trio, and nephews, the Wiley Brothers (Sam J. Levine), who want Patch Of Heaven for themselves, from secretly buying the farm out?
Now, I’ve seen Home On The Range on many Disney animated feature lists, and ranked as one of the company’s worst Disney animated films on many of those lists. I even remember giving this film a D- when I did my Disney marathon just ten years ago, when doing movie reviewing mainly on Facebook. So, after rewatching this film again this time around, is it safe to say that I still stand by that grade/rating? Well, though not quite that low this time around, Home On The Range still does end up being one of Disney’s weaker films. First of all, I’m not sure if Disney decided to just not try as hard with this film due to previous recent releases of theirs like The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire only being modest successes in theaters, or the fact that Treasure Planet bombed st the box-office, or if Disney was just trying to look for any, and every excuse to make the move into making future films computer animated like the films of Disney/Pixar, and DreamWorks, for instance. Or, maybe Disney that this film would have been successful with its audience like with many other films before it? Yeah, I’m sure there’s plenty of speculation as to why Disney decided to make Home On The Range the way that they did. Anyway, I remember first hearing of Home On The Range when going on vacation with family, and friends, and briefly seeing drawings, and posters of it while at the former Disney animation studio at MGM/Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida. Basically, we were having a tour at the studio, and seeing the process of them making the upcoming Disney film, Brother Bear. Anyway, during that time, they showed sketches, and drawings of Home On The Range, as that was the film that would follow Brother Bear, and said it would come out in 2004. Then, when some family, and I saw Brother Bear when that got released in theaters in November 2003, we saw the preview for Home On The Range. I will say that I wasn’t as excited for it as I had been for many other Disney films. Nevertheless, because I was one that continually saw Disney films that would get released, I was willing to give Home On The Range a chance. After seeing the film when it got released in April 2004, I didn’t think it was exactly horrible, but definitely not one of Disney’s best works either. Well, I hope you guys didn’t mind me incorporating the story of my experience with this Disney film, as it is likely a fairly long one to tell. Now, on to the actual review itself!
So why is Home On The Range not exactly one of their best works? Well, though there are a few good things going for it, the way that this film is executed story wise is not exactly the best. For one, the film was probably a little too short. Yes, it was around an hour, and fifteen minutes. Now, let me clarify. I haven’t minded especially animated films having such a fairly shorter runtime like that, as even Disney’s older animated works like Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty also had similar runtimes like that. However, in a case like Home On The Range, that didn’t seem long enough to flesh it’s characters out, for the most part, and there didn’t seem to be as much heart to this film as a result. I mean there were relationships that felt way too rushed, some character arcs that almost came out of the blue, and even some potential twists that either truly felt like twists, or you kind of saw coming from the beginning.
In addition to all of this, there were a lot of burp, and fart jokes that didn’t exactly seem to land quite as well. Crude jokes like those may chance landed well, and been done with class in films like The Lion King, or Shrek, for instance. However, not quite as much this time around. Additionally, there were points where this film felt a little childish, corny, and a little cheesy at times. There were some cute, and funny moments that will be enjoyable, but a lot of those will be somewhat far, and between.
Then there are the characters. Honestly, the only standouts will probably be the cow trio Maggie, Mrs. Calloway, and Grace, Buck the Horse, or the rabbit Lucky Jack. Oh, and the villain, Alameda Slim, he was a decent one, but, again, probably not going to go down as a memorable Disney villain like most other villains in the Disney animated feature canon. And his henchmen, the Wiley brother trio, oh my gosh, though they tried to be hilarious, they were really corny, and stupid. Some lines from them were hilarious, but, again, they were okay characters overall. Overall, the characters were okay, but they probably won’t leave as much of an impact on children, and adults the way that many other fictional Disney characters have seemed to over the years.
With all that said, what are the strengths of Home On The Range? Well, to begin there’s some of the music by Alan Menken, and lyricist Glenn Slater. First of all, there were at least one, or two good songs, like “You Ain’t Home On The Range”, and “Will The Sun Ever Shine Again?”. The rest of the songs were okay. But the villain song that Slim sings, “Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo”, again, just decent, but hard to take seriously. Still, definitely was good to incorporate some pieces of classical songs in that one, like Yankee Doodle, and Ode To Joy, for example. In addition to that, it was also cool to have a nice Old Western score similar to what one hears in many films that were set in the Old West. Don’t get me wrong, Alan Menken may have had better songs, and scores for films like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and the like. Still, Menken has always used his talents to draw audiences into any story, especially Disney ones. Home On The Range is no exception. One other thing I will say is that even if Home On The Range didn’t seem to fare well with audiences, or even at the box office back in 2004, at least Disney was willing to give Alan Menken, and Glenn Slater another chance to make better songs, and a better score six years later, when Disney released Tangled. And boy, did that seem to pay off.
Then, there’s the animation. Even if the animation could have been a little better, how could you not love the scenes in which the Old West was drawn? I mean the landscape of farms, the animation of deserts most likely in Arizona, the way that characters were designed, how could you not like them to one degree, or another? What’s more, if you liked how realistically characters were drawn in other Disney animated films like say The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, or Atlantis: The Lost Empire, for example, chances are you’ll probably like how realistically most of the characters are drawn in Home On The Range are drawn up as well.
Additionally, there’s some of the characters. Honestly, though the cow trio that consisted of Maggie, Mrs. Calloway, and Grace, was good, and had some highlights, it’s most likely the side characters that will probably be the bigger highlights of the film. Whether it be Lucky Jack the rabbit, Jeb the goat, or especially Buck the horse, they will have probably most of the memorable that one could think of during most scenes that involve them. Especially if you liked Cuba Gooding Jr., he voices Buck. If you thought he was hilarious in other films that he was in, chances are you’ll probably liked seeing him in this film when voicing this character. As for Lucky Jack, part of me wishes the movie was more about him somehow. But hey, for what we got, this film was alright in that regard. Again, though the main characters could have more well written, and more memorable because of that, at least they were alright for what we got from them in the end.
Finally, there’s the storyline. As mentioned before, it could have been structured much better. The first, and second were alright. There were some hilarious moments even in those parts, especially a really hilarious moment that occurs shortly after the cows leave their farm. However, when the third act occurs, that’s really where things pick up, things come together more, and the climax occurs. It’s just too bad the first, and second acts didn’t see quite as good as the third act.
And that’s my review for Disney’s Home On The Range. It was a decent Disney animated film to say the least. Still, personally, for now at least, I would rather spend more quality time with Kenai, and Koda from Brother Bear, Kayley, and Garrett from Warner Bros. Quest For Camelot, or Sinbad from Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas. Yes, a revisit at least of Brother Bear will be coming sometime in the future. Still, for those of you that read my review for Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas last year, you may recall me mentioning that that film had problems, yes? But would I rather watch that DreamWorks one more so than this Disney film? Absolutely. Yes! True, Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas had issues story wise, pacing, the way some characters were developed, and things like that. However, that film still had a better storyline, felt more epic, had better, and more likable characters, and had more heart in its storyline. Now, keep in mind that I’m incorporating Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas in this review due mainly to the fact that that was the last hand-drawn movie from DreamWorks. Not to mention that Sinbad was released in theaters in 2003, just a year before the release of Disney’s Home On The Range. Home On The Range, on the other hand, lacked many of those qualities, and ended up being very lackluster for a Disney animated film as a result. All to say, Home On The Range, it was okay, but could have been way better, especially for being a Disney film, or Disney’s last hand-drawn film for the next five years. I would say only see Disney’s Home On The Range if you want a Disney film with some comedy, decent animation, if you’re okay with subpar songs, or if you are on the trail to seeing every Disney film, animated, or even live-action, that’s been made. Otherwise, maybe skip this one. I’ve heard some people that have seen both 2004’s Home On The Range, and 2005’s Chicken Little thought that the latter was worse than the former. Is that actually the case? Well, I will plan on being the judge of that when I revisit, and review Chicken Little on this blog either in the near, or distant future on this blog.
Final Rating: 6.8/10
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 