Official Synopsis
When a greedy outlaw schemes to take possession of “Patch Of Heaven” dairy farm, three determined cows, a karate-kicking stallion named Buck, and a colorful corral of critters join forces to save their home. The stakes are sky high as this unlikely animal alliance risks their hides and match wits with a mysterious band of bad guys.
While it certainly didn’t do well in the theaters, and was the last hand-drawn feature for Disney before they resurrected the medium with The Princess and the Frog, it still contained a lot of moxie despite its flaws.
The one thing you will immediately notice about this film is how it’s very representative of an older, 60s era style of animation. Lots of 90 degree angles instead of curves and a color palette that features browns, reds, yellows and light blues (somewhere stuck between the 60s and the 70s). Simply put, I loved how the film looked and acted. It was representative of a time where westerns thrived and cowboys tamed the harsh new country (maybe Red Rider BB guns as well). This is one of the more positive features of Home on the Range, and one I can certainly appreciate.
The other positives come straight from the voice acting, which is just filled with stars. Roseanne you know quite well, but her counterparts include Judi Dench, G.W. Bailey, Steve Buscemi, Cuba Gooding Jr., Rando Quaid, Carole Cook and the unappreciated Joe Flaherty as the old goat (fitting, God love that man). All of them do a proper representation of their respective characters, and make the animals more than believable. No matter the size of the role, the actors nail it, especially during the musical numbers.
I know what you’re saying, so if the animation and the acting were good, what happened to this film? Good question. The problem is firmly within the script, and more importantly how it begins. We don’t have enough time to get to understand Maggie’s situation. It’s a 2-3 sentence explanation from Roseanne and nothing more. We revisit the tragedy of losing her farm later in the film, but the space between introducing the problem and then making it sound depressing is too far for the audience to care. On top of this, Maggie doesn’t spend enough time at the new farm before she has to go save it, which means her attachment and motivation is severely lacking. Everything from that point in the beginning until the end is just comedy, action and character development.
Again, the beginning really hurts the rest of the film. The screenwriters and directors should have noticed this and corrected it before animation even began. They didn’t and the film comes off disjointed and empty, and that’s a true shame. This is another case of finding great acting, but the production fails the actors.
So, in the end, Home on the Range looks good, sounds good, but isn’t close to being good thanks to unbalanced storytelling. Story should be the first thing perfected in any great film, especially animated, before any other element.
Shifting gears, the Blu-ray for Home on the Range is simply fantastic. The looks of the animation are clean and crisp. The colors stand out remarkably well. It will visually make you sad that more hand-drawn features aren’t arriving from Disney. The style of the animation and color palette are very well represented in this feature. They look gorgeous in HD. You will find zero issues with grain or compression, so expect some solid HD.
The audio on this one is mastered in 5.1 DTS-HD and the film has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Again, it looks and sounds spectacular.
Now, the special features portion of this review is packed. Here is what you’re looking at:
– Bonus Short: A Dairy Tale: The Three Little Pigs
– Deleted Scenes
– Music Video
– Trailblazers: The Making of Home on the Range
– Yodelmentary
– Joke Corral: Herd of Jokes
– Audio Commentary
– Art Review
These are some really good features for this Blu-ray release. The short is hilarious, the music video is actually quite solid (one of the strongest parts of the film is the music), and the trailblazers featurette is very interesting. You will also get some solid audio commentary with this one and fun in the Yodelmentary. All in all, the features are darn good.
