Funny Farm
Disney's downsized animated feature Home on the Range is strictly Saturday afternoon matinee material. There was a time when such a thinly plotted cartoon might have aired on the Disney Channel, but, in today's theaters, it ranks as prominently featured family fare. On its own terms, Home is funny and entertaining.
Moved by a familiar plot to Save the Farm, Home offers classic animation, fast action and typical characters. Roseanne provides the voice of a fat show cow whose arrival at a Western farm called Patch of Heaven coincides with an eviction notice. Roseanne teams with a couple of other cows, stuffy Judi Dench and flaky Jennifer Tilly, to fight foreclosure.
The three cows venture beyond the pasture in search of reward money for catching a villain (Randy Quaid) whose capture could net the payment to save their Patch of Heaven. They roam the American West, encountering a beautiful, colorful landscape, flash floods and a showdown at an old mine.
Though villains are depicted as stereotypical businessmen whose motive is stealing money, there are a few script surprises; the farm's debt is presented as something to repay, not something to evade, and the trio make a goal-directed journey seeking neither pity nor undeserved favors along the trail. While Home is a far distance from the charm and intelligence of Charlotte's Web, its heroes are self-reliant.
Home on the Range is a throwback to Disney's pre-Aladdin animated pictures. Minus a few burps, the jokes are clean, and Home is relatively safe for the whole family. Will Finn's and John Sanford's writing is clever; Roseanne gets the best lines, and an ambitious horse voiced by Cuba Gooding, Jr. is especially fun to watch.
Home on the Range is nothing fancy but it is also nothing frightening. Those accustomed to fast-talking monsters, ogres and sloths—or, for that matter, foul-mouthed cable cartoons—may feel out of place. Pop culture references, despite the movie's misleading tag line "Bust a Moo," are few and happily harmless. Conflict is as easy to smell as a cowchip on a sunny afternoon. Zippy musical monologues are replaced by k.d. lang crooning a melodic tune. Disney's post-Pixar Home of the Range is neither far nor wide, and its cow plot lacks beef, but it makes for a nice matinee or DVD.
Moved by a familiar plot to Save the Farm, Home offers classic animation, fast action and typical characters. Roseanne provides the voice of a fat show cow whose arrival at a Western farm called Patch of Heaven coincides with an eviction notice. Roseanne teams with a couple of other cows, stuffy Judi Dench and flaky Jennifer Tilly, to fight foreclosure.
The three cows venture beyond the pasture in search of reward money for catching a villain (Randy Quaid) whose capture could net the payment to save their Patch of Heaven. They roam the American West, encountering a beautiful, colorful landscape, flash floods and a showdown at an old mine.
Though villains are depicted as stereotypical businessmen whose motive is stealing money, there are a few script surprises; the farm's debt is presented as something to repay, not something to evade, and the trio make a goal-directed journey seeking neither pity nor undeserved favors along the trail. While Home is a far distance from the charm and intelligence of Charlotte's Web, its heroes are self-reliant.
Home on the Range is a throwback to Disney's pre-Aladdin animated pictures. Minus a few burps, the jokes are clean, and Home is relatively safe for the whole family. Will Finn's and John Sanford's writing is clever; Roseanne gets the best lines, and an ambitious horse voiced by Cuba Gooding, Jr. is especially fun to watch.
Home on the Range is nothing fancy but it is also nothing frightening. Those accustomed to fast-talking monsters, ogres and sloths—or, for that matter, foul-mouthed cable cartoons—may feel out of place. Pop culture references, despite the movie's misleading tag line "Bust a Moo," are few and happily harmless. Conflict is as easy to smell as a cowchip on a sunny afternoon. Zippy musical monologues are replaced by k.d. lang crooning a melodic tune. Disney's post-Pixar Home of the Range is neither far nor wide, and its cow plot lacks beef, but it makes for a nice matinee or DVD.
