Singing cows, yodeling cattle rustlers, and karate-chopping steeds – yes, you’ve landed in Disney’s 45th animated feature film: Home on the Range.
The film premiered in 2004 and was moderately successful at the box office. This was another new film to me on this journey that I had never seen before. And now that I’ve seen it, it’s actually rather forgettable…
Home on the Range tells the tale of an unlikely trio of cows who set off to find one of the West’s most wanted villains in order to win the reward money to save the farm. It features the voice talents of Roseanne Barr, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Judi Dench. The film does have some good humor and the farm animals create some unique, fun characters. The film seemed to lack a strong story, and so it fell rather flat for me.
Once again, the music of the film is not performed by the characters but plays along as the soundtrack undertones to the film. I do very much enjoy “Will the Sun Ever Shine Again” performed by Bonnie Raitt and written by the exceptionally talented Alan Menken. (That might mostly be from the mostly-unknown Disney On the Record soundtrack. Google it. Trust me.)
I was excited to see this film on this journey as I had never seen it before, however it didn’t leave me with the glow of Disney wonderment. Granted it seems that most of these post Disney Golden Age films just can’t quite compete with the magic of the nineties.
Anyways, this week let’s end with a quote from the man himself, Mr. Walt Disney:
“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”
Coming Up Next: Chicken Little
