It's no Disney classic, but Home on the Range has its moments as some very determined cows take on a no-good varmint to save the farm.
By RICK GERSHMAN
Published April 1, 2004
[ Walt Disney Pictures]
A trio of cows, from left, Mrs. Caloway (voice of Judi Dench), Maggie (voice of Roseanne Barr) and Grace (voice of Jennifer Tilly), meet up with Lucky Jack (voice of Charles Haid) in Home on the Range.
View a clip
Home on the Range is rumored to be the last Disney release to use traditional "2-D style" animation, and even considering the studio's current woes, that's a little upsetting coming from the home of Snow White and Fantasia. Such a momentous occasion deserves more than cutesy puns about the film's protagonists, a trio of cows.
But when do reviewers get to make cow jokes? Not often - at least not since Steven Seagal films started going straight-to-video.
Don't have a cow, man. It's not worth the energy, which Disney execs seem to have thought by putting this flick out to pasture.
Despite Disney's least efforts - such as hiring Roseanne Barr(!) to voice the lead character - Range turns out to be an agreeable, entertaining trifle. Although it's 20,000 leagues from Disney greats such as Beauty and the Beast, it is solid, corny fun in the vein of 2000's The Emperor's New Groove and is more spirited than last year's Brother Bear.
On paper, there's little reason to expect such an amusing result. The storytellers have one previous film under their belts, 2000's mediocre The Road to El Dorado. The story was overhauled during production (along with the original title, Sweating Bullets). And with a few notable exceptions, the voice talent is largely budget-conscious.
Range was conceived as a musical, with the real "star" the new songs by eight-time Oscar-winner Alan Menken. But these are Menken's weakest compositions to date, despite game performances from K.D. Lang, Bonnie Raitt and Tim McGraw. Heck, most of Menken's songs got cut from the film, which helps explain its brief running time.
But against all odds, Range is a solid little adventure that kids will enjoy and parents won't mind sitting through.
Range follows our three cows - Maggie (voice of Barr), Mrs. Caloway (Judi Dench) and Grace (Jennifer Tilly) - on a mission to save their beloved farm, Patch of Heaven. It's beloved to the assorted cows, pigs and chickens for the most understandable reason - Heaven's matriarch, Pearl (Sarah Jessica Parker, oddly uncredited), refuses to eat any of them. Guess that's why she's behind on the bills.
Pearl needs $750 lickety-split before the farm gets auctioned off - which conveniently is the same amount as a bounty on the head of no-good cattle rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), whose yodeling skills can hypnotize our heroes into mindless cow-zombies (don't ask). While our cows venture off to capture Slim, they have competition in an Eastwood-esque bounty hunter named Rico and a wanna-be heroic horse named Buck (voiced by Cuba Gooding Jr. in a none-too-distinctive fashion that continues his downward slide since winning an Oscar for Jerry Maguire).
Will Finn and John Sanford, who co-wrote and co-directed, elicit game performances from Barr, Tilly and especially Dench, who harkens back to her British television comedy background. The thin plot has a few inspired moments and even a little twist, and the scenes at Patch of Heaven, while too few, are cute and sweet in the best sense.
It likely won't save 2-D animation at Disney, but Range gets the job done, though it never answers one question: Where are the deer and the antelope? And shouldn't they be playing?
Home on the Range
Grade: B-
Directors: Will Finn, John Sanford
Cast: Voices of Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Cuba Gooding Jr., Randy Quaid, Charles Dennis, Steve Buscemi, Joe Flaherty, Charles Haid
