Home On The Range Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)April 5th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Home on the Range" (Disney)
The most discouraging word about this lackluster film is that it marks the end of the era of traditional hand-drawn animation at Disney. Perhaps, it's understandable when you consider how computer animation (CGI) has taken over. And somewhere amidst their cutesy sight-gags and silly dialogue, writers/directors Will Finn and John Sanford ("Road to El Dorado") forgot about how integral a good story and appealing characters are to a film's success, even for tiny tots.
This tale revolves around a brash, wisecracking, prize-winning heifer named Maggie (voiced by shrill Roseanne Barr), a new arrival at the peaceful Patch of Heaven farm, owned by Pearl (Carole Cooke). While she's welcomed into the dairy barn by kindly Grace (Jennifer Tilly), she's rejected by the prim British cow in a blue bonnet, Mrs. Calloway (Dame Judi Dench). But simple cow squabbles seem unimportant when Sheriff Brown (Richard Riehle) tells Pearl that her farm is in foreclosure. The three bovines must band together to capture Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), a villainous cattle rustler, whose $750 bounty could save Patch of Heaven from the auction block. But Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a skittish, motor-mouth stallion, is after Slim too.
Perhaps what's most disappointing are the tunes by composer Alan Menken ("Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin") and his new lyricist partner Glen Slater, warbled by Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang and Tim McGraw. Slim's yodeling song is backed by a cattle parade, evoking memories of pink elephants in "Dumbo," plus there's a runaway mine car and a trio of belching pigs. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Home on the Range" is a mildly funny yet udderly forgettable 5, which means it should soon be stampeding into a video corral near you.
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