What Home?

Even 2004 seems too recent for Disney to make a movie praising the American frontier but they sort of did with Home on the Range. Visually, the film calls back to the shorts about Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed from Melody Time, but of course the humour is much more ironic. Actually it feels quite a bit like '90s Warner Brothers cartoons, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons, except never funny. Well, I laughed once, when a chicken voiced by Estelle Harris incredulously asked, "Who would eat a chicken?!" Once again, this is a Disney movie with intelligent animals that raises the issue of humans eating them without taking it seriously. But everything about this movie is pretty insubstantial with the exception of one song.

Alan Menken returned to compose the music and most of the songs aren't very interesting. His work for Disney hadn't really been interesting since Pocahontas. And once again, none of the songs are performed by the characters, but rather by music stars, in this case country stars, off-screen. According to Wikipedia, one song, "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again", was written in response to the 9/11 attacks, which would have still been recent when the film was in production. Which makes sense of the fact that the song seems sincere and heartfelt and totally out of place in an otherwise vapid irony fest.

It's certainly the first time I ever appreciated Bonnie Rait.

The plot of the film itself concerns three dairy cows trying to catch a yodelling cattle rustler (Randy Quaid) so they can use the bounty to save their farm. The three cows are voiced by Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, and Jennifer Tilly and their rapport is somewhat reminiscent of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty. The tension between the newcomer "showcow" Maggie (Barr) and the dignified Mrs. Calloway (Dench) is presented as the film's central conflict but I never felt even slightly invested in it. The performances felt so isolated. It may be because I never liked Barr's style and always found her voice dully monotone but Dench also doesn't feel very present.

I was kind of amused by an appearance by Steve Buscemi, whose character was clearly modelled on him.

So this is the last 2D, traditionally animated Disney film until The Princess and the Frog in 2009. Considering the political motivations behind The Princess and the Frog, Home on the Range could be said to be the last traditionally animated film produced that way for its own sake. It's certainly no grand finale.

Home on the Range is available on Disney+.

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This is part of a series of posts I'm writing on the Disney animated canon.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo and Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear