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Home on the RangeRating:
Release Date: 14 September, 2004 Retail Price: $29.99 OUR Price: $22.49 You SAVE: $7.50! Cast: |
Home on the Range Reviews
What Happend Disney?
DIRECTED BY
Will Finn and John Sanford
STARRING
voices of Roseanne Barr as Maggie; Dame Judi Dench as Mrs. Caloway; Jennifer Tilly as Grace; Cuba Gooding Jr. as Buck; Randy Quaid as Slim; Steve Buscemi as Wesley; G.W. Bailey as Rusty; Joe Flaherty as Jeb; Carole Cook as Pearl; Charles Dennis as Rico; Sam J. Levine as the Willie Brothers; Estelle Harris as Audrey the Chicken
It's one thing to be asked to produce a hit film. The creative team behind Disney's first animated release after losing Pixar also inherited the unenviable task of proving to the world that the Mouse House can survive just fine on the strength of its own animation division. Sorry guys, but if this is the future of Disney animation, you're in a world of trouble. It's not that Home on the Range is unwatchably bad. It's just so ordinary that it barely registers. While little ones may get a sugar boost-like charge out of the action and enjoy the cute farm animals, most teens and adults will find the whole thing way too bland and forgettable.
For one thing, we've traveled these mesas a hundred times before. The bank threatens to foreclose unless someone comes up with the money to prevent it and foils the bad guy. Since the outcome is never in doubt, the storytellers must keep us entertained with wondrous characters, witty repartee, interesting plot twists and funny sight gags. They try, but fall short.
First-time directors Finn and Sanford have spent years working on Disney features. So has composer Alan Menken, who penned memorable songs for The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and other modern classics. This movie also features big-time country music stars such as Tim McGraw and k.d. lang. So its unfortunate that Home on the Range possesses all the sticking power of Teflon. And even worse that that assessment extends to the tale's decent, but unsubstantial morals. According to director John Sanford, "There are values in our story that are good, but we didn't want to be too heavy handed with any kind of message." The result? Teflon. A generally harmless, but mediocre family flick.
The three cows committed to bringing Slim to justice couldn't be more different. Maggie is brash, rude and self-impressed. The ladylike Mrs. C is proper (communicated in part by a British accent) and reluctant to leave the farm on what she considers a foolhardy adventure. They're extremely antagonistic toward each other, forcing the third member of their trio, the tone-deaf Grace, to spout pop psychology in an attempt to keep the peace. By the end of the film, these diverse personalities learn to appreciate their differences and agree to live in harmony.
When the Sheriff suggests to Pearl that she could sell off some of her livestock to pay the debt on her farm, she indignantly tells him, "They're family. You don't sell off family!" Pearl is a hard-working pioneer woman who loves her animals, and her animals love her. A jive-talking horse named Buck idolizes a bounty hunter and longs to wear his saddle. When the star-struck steed's loyalties are later tested, he chooses rightly. The farm animals think ill of a surly old goat for being stubborn, greedy and selfish. A pig says he has faith that the cows won't let them down, reminiscing about the bovines' past good deeds. Grace tells her friends, "Violence is not going to solve anything." ...
Ummmmm............
Well, traditionally-animated movies by Disney went out not with a bang, not with a wimper, but something along the lines of a giggle, and with Home on the Range, the once proud Walt Disney Studios enters the frightening world of burp-and-bathroom-humor kids' movies.
The House That Mickey Built seemed to just copy themes from other films and make a new movie out of them: the basic premises (save the farm, would-be heroes) have been seen several times before. Humor goes to the dogs....er, cows, with crude humor (including a Disney limit-pushing quirk at udders). The animation, aside from the ocasionally gorgeous backgrounds, is pure lazy, and the cartoon cattle bear little resemblence to real livestock.
In conclusion, Disney needs to take a hint from Pixar and get back to doing what it does best: making original and entertaining movies for the whole family.
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