"Home on the Range"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: **** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Roseanne as MAGGIE Judi Dench as MRS. CALLOWAY Jennifer Tilly as GRACE Cuba Gooding Jr. as BUCK Randy Quaid as ALAMEDA SLIM Rated PG Studio: Disney Directed by: Will Finn and John Sanford Back to DVD Review Home |
 |
According to reports, “Home on the Range” is the last Disney film that will utilize traditional cell animation. And that’s a shame. Unfortunately, in the past years, Disney has set itself up in such a way that their animated films have to perform up to “The Lion King” standards to be a hit. I’ve seen reports that put the budget for “Home on the Range” to be upwards of $110 million.
Where does all the money go? I know there’s a need for research and character development, but this is crazy. How is it that a movie like “Lilo and Stitch” costs $80 million while the half-hour television show is cranked out at a mere fraction of the cost each week? The animation is virtually the same.
Sure, movies like “Home on the Range” used computer animation for many aspects, but I still insist that it can’t be that expensive. What about going back to the days of “The Little Mermaid” or “The Fox and the Hound” when animation was relatively cheap and could still be profitable even if it only grabbed the child audience? Sadly, this outrageous expenditures has proved to be the downfall of Disney cell animation.
But we can enjoy it while it lasts. I’ve always liked “Home on the Range.” The cast was hilarious and spot-on. The music was great, with a new lyricist that gives the late Howard Ashman a run for his money.
Maggie (Roseanne) is a diary cow who must be sold off because her owner’s herd was stolen by a cattle rustler named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid). Maggie is sold to a small dairy farm called Patch of Heaven, where the animals live without fear of the slaughterhouse. However, when the bank demands back payments for the farm, Patch of Heaven is in danger of being sold. It now is up to Maggie and her bovine partners Mrs. Calloway (Judi Densch) and Grace (Jennifer Tilly) to track down Alameda Slim and secure the $750 bounty, which will pay off the debt for Patch of Heaven.
The DVD of “Home on the Range” has some excellent features in addition to the funny film. There are four deleted scenes that were cobbled together from storyboards and pencil sketches. While watching them, it’s fascinating to realize how much of the film gets changed at every stage of the game. The original opening of the film with three mariachi mosquitoes was a terrible idea and didn’t work at all. I always have a lot of respect for filmmakers who can put their own crummy scenes on a DVD to show what a disaster the film could have been.
Disney continues to find new and interesting ways to make their set-top games less mundane than were originally found on early DVDs. The Yodel Memory Game is like a yodeling version of the early computer game Simon, where you have to remember the order of characters. The Joke Corral provides several minutes of one-liner jokes told in the style of “Hee Haw,” with the characters from the film popping through barn doors.
While I usually hate animated menus, I must admit the ones on this disc are pretty funny, and there’s a variety of them that rotate every time you put it in. There’s also a bonus short film, “A Dairy Tale: The Three Little Pigs.” In this short, Mrs. Calloway tries to tell a nice story of the three little pigs, but it keeps getting interrupted and improved by characters like Maggie and Buck.
Other features include a music video by the Beu Sisters, a behind-the-scenes documentary that takes the viewer from development to production and a very informative and entertaining commentary by the writers, directors and producer. Here, you find out some interesting tidbits, including how silly the MPAA can still be by awarding a PG rating to this film for Maggie’s line, “Yeah, they’re real. Quit staring,” even though that line ended up in the preview “approved for all audiences” by the same organization. I guess there are still plenty of sticks in the mud in Hollywood.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Family-friendly widescreen (1.66:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. THX-certified. French language track. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
