Though Home on the Range is far from an unflawed film, I have to admit I had some fun watching it. Perhaps the film’s greatest asset is that it never attempts to be a Lion King but something lighter and more akin to The Emperor’s New Groove. Even though by those standards The Emperor’s New Groove is still funnier and a better film, Home on the Range has an energy and visual style to it that kept me from being ultimately disappointed.
I really dig the look of the film. The visual style mixes the angularity of Sleeping Beauty with the overtly cartoony The Emperor’s New Groove. Coupled with steadily building energy and rootin’ tootin’ music, Home on the Range has an aesthetic style which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, it only goes downhill from there.
The story is never really engaging. Maggie (voiced by Roseanne Barr) is a prize-winning cow who loses her farm when the rest of the cattle on it are stolen away by an infamous rustler by the name of Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid, who surprised me by being really good in this role). It’s never discussed why Maggie wasn’t taken too—one of many plot holes. Slim has a unique an unexpected way of absconding with his newfound herds: his yodeling mesmerizes them and he simply walks off with the cattle following like an Old West version of the Pied Piper.
Maggie is sold off to a small farm called “Little Patch of Heaven” where things are “Disney-fied” to such an extent that the animals on the farm don’t appear to be there as food (though there are several jokes relating to their potential as meals) but to help harvest the fruits and vegetables. I had a really tough time buying this particular notion, especially with the aforementioned food jokes. Why would these animals want to save their farm when they’re just going to end up, as Sebastian in The Little Mermaid so aptly put it, “on the plate,” eventually? I mean, wouldn’t the jokes about the pigs “avoiding luaus” indicate that these animals KNOW what they’re really there for? That their presence on that farm spells their eventual butchering? If I was a cartoon pig I’d get my curly tail the Hell off of that farm ASAP and have a rousing adventure off in the wilds of the Old West…but sadly this is not the story we’re to see…which is a bummer ‘cause that sounds like it could have potential.
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