Can Disney really afford to give up traditional animation in favor of movies like Toy Story and Finding Nemo? Well the box office seems to think so as traditional Disney animation continues to take a slamming with families ignoring good quality films. I say good quality because that is exactly what Home on the Range is, a family film that offers solid animation with bright colors, a good story and a really good voice cast. What went wrong?
As a film on its own merits, nothing. However I think Disney is going to have to face the fact that traditional animation needs a STRONG story and not just an adequate one. Home on the Range is well written but there's nothing truly original or exciting here to offset the been there done that feeling of the movie.
Home on the Range stars Sweet old Pearl Gesner (voiced by Carole Cook) who needs $750 or the bank will foreclose on her mortgage and sell her farm at auction. As the farm is home to more than just sweet granny, the animals get involved and are led by newcomer to the farm Maggie the show cow (Roseanne Barr) who cooks up a grand idea. She figures that she and two other cows, Grace (Jennifer Tilly) and Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench), can go after a nasty varmint named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), who has a reward on his head of, you guessed it, $750, and use the money to pay off the debt.
Thus the fun begins as the three meet other animals and characters and go up and down in their quest to save their homeland. One of the problems with the story is that it feels predictable which even younger kids probably have picked up on. The story of course is traditional Disney with a heartwarming ending that resolves the issue at hand. The music should also be mentioned with is actually better than some other recent Disney releases. In all, Home on the Range, is good but missing that special touch that have made other Disney films classics.
The Disc:
As usual Disney brings home a smoking transfer that is THX approved and looks just as big as good as one would hope. The film is presented in a "family-friendly" widescreen anamorphic 1.66:1 ratio. With music, the soundtrack sounds every bit as good as the look presented in the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track that offers plenty of surround goodness during the film's various action sequences.
Extras on the disc begin with an "Audio commentary with producer Alice Dewey and co-writers and co-directors Will Finn and John Sanford". Listening to them speak about an animated film is a bit weird. Maybe I am just used to listening to live film commentary. still they offer up some interesting anecdotes about the film and how it differs from putting together a live action film. Nothing here that kids would be interested in but worth a listen for anyone into art and animation.
Next up is an animated short, "A Dairy Tale: The Three Little Pigs," which I found to be somewhat interesting but not quite the best thing seen from Disney. Kids will likely want to view this once at least but probably not be into viewing it over and over again.
Next up clocking in at sixteen-minutes is a behind-the-scenes promotional featurette, "Trailblazers: The Making of Home on the Range" which shows more of what was talked about in the audio commentary track. There's also some deleted scenes which can be viewed with or without comments. Fans of traditional art will love most the ten minutes of artwork that Disney has included. There's also some games for the kids to play.
bottom line:
Roseanne couldn't really make this film any better than her singing, and yes she does sing! Of course Disney always produces films worth watching at least once, and this is an example of that.
3 out of 5
By - Brian Gray
