A slapstick farce in the tradition of the old Warner Bros. animated shorts, Disney’s Home on the Range was kind of a last gasp effort to continue with traditional flat animation as the rest of the world transitioned to CGI features. Its lack of success quashed flat animation for a long spell (The Princess and the Frog was the next only partially successful effort at resuscitation), but Home on the Range offers a wonderfully tuneful score, some really effective comedy, and a star-laden cast who does its all for a very predictable and only semi-involving story.
Directed by Will Finn, John Sanford
Studio: Disney
Year: 2004
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 76 minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 29.99
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Review Date: July 1, 2012
The Film
3.5/5
With their farm under threat of foreclosure, three dairy cows: the brash Maggie (Roseanne Barr), the innocent Grace (Jennifer Tilly), and the grand dame Mrs. Caloway (Judi Dench ) take matters into their own hooves and decide to raise the $750 needed to save the farm. That money amount is the exact reward being offered for the capture of infamous cattle rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), but the ladies have some competition: rough and tough bounty hunter Rico (Charles Dennis) with his newly acquired horse Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is also hot on the trail of the yodeling cow thief, so it will take either great skill or even greater luck to save the day.
The six hands credited with the simplistic story (directors Will Finn and John Sanford along with Michael LaBash, Sam Levine, Mark Kennedy, and Robert Lence) haven’t really come up with anything remotely fresh with their narrative, but they’ve built in enough jokes and funny business (a terrific little sequence that pays homage to spaghetti westerns as Buck imagines himself in a widescreen epic like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) to somewhat compensate for the film’s utter (udder?) predictability. They’re also blessed with a cast who probably ad-libbed like mad and turned their characters into the hoots we see in the final film. Of course, someone didn’t exercise complete control over matters of taste. There are far too many belching jokes (none of them funny), and the multitude of puns playing on familiar movies, TV shows, and music are very hit and miss.
Speaking of music, it’s one of the best aspects of the movie. With multiple Oscar-winner Alan Mencken writing the songs (lyrics by the talented Glenn Slater), every song either sets the toes to tappin’ or strikes an emotional chord in the viewer. The movie isn’t a musical: the songs are used as background score or to emphasize affecting moments, and that’s all for the best. The title song gets the movie off to a rollicking start, and even better is k. d. lang’s rendition of “Little Patch of Heaven” that introduces us to the farm animals and that’s the best song in the score. Bad guy Randy Quaid does sing a yodeling song in character (necessary since his yodeling is what mesmerizes the cattle that he’s so good at rustling) that forms the basis of the movie’s biggest production number in blindingly kaleidoscopic colors. The movie’s big ballad is sung by Bonnie Raitt “Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?” when all hope seems lost for the three protagonists. A Tim McGraw solo “Wherever the Trail May Lead” is sung over the closing credits (the filmmakers couldn’t find a place for it in the story).
Judi Dench is fall down funny with her dry, clipped delivery that takes no prisoners. Roseanne Barr is as rash as usual as the plucky upstart who’s game for anything while Jennifer Tilly as the tone deaf Grace makes a calming third corner to the triangle. Cuba Gooding Jr. may do a few too many of his patented whoops as the cocky Buck, but Randy Quaid as the bad guy, Joe Flaherty as an ornery goat, and Charles Haid as an enterprising peg-legged rabbit also make memorable appearances that add greatly to the film’s comic quotient.
Video Quality
5/5
The film has been framed at 1.78:1 and is presented in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. The bright and deeply saturated color palette looks marvelous throughout with nary a hint of banding or noise in the visual presentation and with the lines all solid and free from artifacts. Contrast has been perfectly realized in this reference quality presentation. The film has been divided into 29 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix offers the wonderfully tuneful song score in excellent fashion with the vocals occupying the center channel while the orchestrations fill out the fronts and rears expertly. Dialogue is also well recorded and is never overpowered by the score. The film stints a little in offering an immersive sense of western ambience in the available channels with good but not great use of sound effects in the several action sequences. Bass is nice and tight throughout.
Special Features
3.5/5
The audio commentary is provided by producer Alice Dewey and directors Will Finn and John Sanford. The trio speak knowledgeably about the many changes the film underwent in its almost torturous road to release, and hearing those stories of things attempted and abandoned gives this commentary a must-listen rating for fans of the movie.
All of the video bonus material is presented in 480i.
There are four deleted scenes which may be viewed separately or in one 15-minute group. They’re introduced by directors Will Finn and John Sanford.
“Any Time You Need a Friend” music video runs for 3 ¼ minutes.
“Trailblazers: The Making of Home on the Range” is a 16 ¾-minute look at the film’s production with comments from the film’s producer, director, supervising animators, and composer. They discuss the multiple changes in characters and story over the years of the film’s production, and Alan Mencken discusses his inspiration for some of the songs.
“Art Review” introduces us to David Cutler and Cristy Maltese who talk about the pictures of the West they took and how those inspired animated locations for the film. They also discuss art designs for many of the characters in the film showing how they changed over many variations of drawing. This runs 10 ¼ minutes.
“A Dairy Tale” is Mrs. Caloway’s rendition of “The Three Little Pigs” with voice actors from the film taking part in this 3 ½-minute short.
“Yodelmentary” is a brief 2 ¾-minute history of the art of yodeling.
“Joke Corral: A Herd of Jokes” offers deleted jokes from the film done in a Laugh-In-style joke wall with voice actors from the movie. It runs 4 ½ minutes.
The disc offers promo trailers for Cinderella and The Odd Life of Timothy Green.
The second disc in the set is the DVD version of the movie.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Home on the Range is a fairly funny lark of a movie with a great cast but only a so-so story. The Blu-ray looks superb bringing out the bright shades of the animation beautifully, and the extras from the DVD release have been ported over faithfully.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
