Home on the Range (2004)
Every review you will read about
"Home on the Range," including this one, will mention
the fact that Disney recently shut down its last traditional
animation studio in America and this is one of the
last projects of its type you will see from that seminal
company. But the idea that Disney would move away
from the type of animation that is featured in "Home
on the Range" isn't likely to truly happen. We're
talking about technique here and not style. It's almost
semantics.
This cartoon Western starts wonderfully
with a silly rabbit getting bounced around a prairie
landscape while one of the funniest songs ever to
grace a Disney film is played. From the beginning,
the film is fast, slap-happy and chaotic. While this
is often fun, the visuals can also be grating as one
tries to keep up with what's going on. It often seems
to be going so fast that focusing is not an option.
The film does slow down for the
music and it is generally awesome. kd lang and Bonnie
Riatt sing two truly beautiful songs written for the
film by Alan Menken during its runtime. These moments
are far more subdued and more for the adults than
the kids in the audience. In fact, in many, many ways,
the film is really far more for adults than kids.
The Tex Avery inspired animations may work well for
kids of all ages but the songs, the plot and the voicework
all will be a lot more interesting to adults.
Roseanne has a really good time
here voicing the main cow, err.. I mean character,
and its really nice to see the often seemingly crazed
and embittered comedian given a chance to do something
new and interesting. She's quite funny. Jennifer Tilly
and Judy Dench also do nice work here. Cuba Gooding
Jr. probably has his best role since "Jerry Maguire"
(talk about an actor in a stinky slump) and its good
to hear Randy Quaid and Steve Buscemi as well. Buscemi
needs to do more voicework for animation; he's really
wonderful here and we wish there was more of him.
As long as there are kids and as
long as there are adults that were once kids (and
as long as we don't run out of energy to generate
electricity), animation of all types will flourish
in American films. In this age of CGI and computer
technology, its nice when an old fashioned cartoon
comes along. "Home on the Range" is a quaint little
ode to days gone by. Now, bring on the next Pixar
movie!
Note:
The 44th "traditionally animated"
film from Disney. The first was "Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs" in 1937.
At one point the film was to be
entitled "Sweating Bullets" as a bull on the farm
was to be the main character and to be named Bullets.
That character was dropped, presumably for Roseanne's
prize winning cow character. In one draft of the script
the widow who ran the farm had a daughter.
In addition to Roseanne (a gay icon)
and the openly gay singer kd lang singing on the soundtrack,
the film features at least one other "gay" reference
when a saloon girl falls on a patron's lap in a bar
fight, revealing himself to be a man, the two men
then recognize each other by shouting, "Dad" and "Son."
This is at least the fifth film
entitled "Home on the Range" to be released.
Viewed in Austin in April 2004.
