Home on the Range (2004 film)
- This article is about the film. For other instances of Home on the Range see Home on the Range (disambiguation).
| Home on the Range | |
|---|---|
 Promotional Poster for Home on the Range | |
| Directed by | Will Finn John Sanford |
| Written by | Will Finn John Sanford |
| Produced by | Alice Dewey |
| Starring | Roseanne Barr Judi Dench Cuba Gooding Jr. Randy Quaid Jennifer Tilly Steve Buscemi |
| Music by | Alan Menken (Music) |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
Release dates | April 2, 2004 |
Running time | 76 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $ 110,000,000 |
Home on the Range is a 2004 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on April 2, 2004. The film is the forty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, and was named after the popular country song "Home on the Range".
The film stars the voices of Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Steve Buscemi, G.W. Bailey, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Randy Quaid.
Plot
The story is set in the Old West (about 1866). Unusual for a Western movie (but not a Disney film), the main characters are female.
A mismatched trio of dairy cows – brash, adventurous Maggie, prim, proper Mrs. Caloway and ditzy, happy-go-lucky Grace (voiced by Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly respectively) – must capture an infamous cattle rustler, for his bounty, in order to save their idyllic farm from foreclosure. (As Grace puts it, "Who better to catch a cattle thief...than a cow?") Aiding them in their quest is Lucky Jack, a feisty, peg-legged rabbit, but a selfish stallion named Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), eagerly working in the service of Rico, a famous bounty hunter, seeks the glory for himself.
History
Prior to the film's release, Disney stated that it would be their last film in their animated features canon to use traditional animation. Although Disney animated films have featured some computer-generated effects for many years, Disney announced plans to move entirely to computer animation after Home on the Range, beginning with 2005's Chicken Little, and laid off most of its animation department. However, after the company's acquisition of Pixar in early 2006, new leaders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull decided to revive traditional animation, and announced the upcoming 2-D film, The Frog Princess. Still, Home on the Range is the final feature in the canon to use the CAPS system, which was first fully used in The Rescuers Down Under.
While critics did not generally like the film, which they felt was weak on plot[citation needed], it was universally praised for Alan Menken's return to Disney animated features.[citation needed] The lyrics were written by Glenn Slater.
The film began pre-production after the release of Pocahontas in 1995. In August 2000, the film was announced as Sweating Bullets and scheduled for a fall 2003 release. The title was changed to Home on the Range in April, 2002.
This film was originally slated to have been released in November 2003, but story and production problems forced Disney to swap release dates with Brother Bear (originally slated for spring 2004) in December 2002. It was also expected to be given a G rating by the MPAA. However, sources inside Disney have indicated that a joke during the movie's opening sequence, one in which a cow's udder is subtly compared to surgically-enhanced breasts, resulted in the movie being slapped with a PG rating instead. [citation needed] The studio also broke from its own tradition of releasing major films at either Thanksgiving or summer vacation (to maximize the family audience), releasing it on April 2nd. There also was some speculation that Michael Eisner who had a made a controversial decision to end production of hand-drawn, 2-D animation chose this ill-timed release date to prove his contention that traditionally animated films were no longer viable.
Box Office
The film had a budget of about $110 million, but only grossed $103,951,461 worldwide.[citation needed]
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. |
- This was the first Disney animated film to feature three female main characters. However, several of its predecessors included female heroes and villains (see Female protagonists in Disney animated films).
- The film premiered on the Starz! cable channel on the night of April 2, 2005, exactly a year after its theatrical release.
- Home on the Range was originally to be the last traditionally animated Disney film released in theaters, But the film's title for the last traditionally animated movie by Disney to be released in theatres was replaced by Pooh's Heffalump Movie. Disney's traditional animation was continued in 2007 with Enchanted.
- In the Spanish version, the movie's name is Cowboy Cows (Vacas Vaqueras).
- In the Italian version the movie's name is Cows to the Revolt (Mucche alla Riscossa).
- In the Swedish version the movie's name is The Cow Gang (Kogänget).
- In the Dutch version the movie's name is Panic on the Prairie (Paniek op de Prairie).
- When Maggie and the others first arrive at Slim's hideout, they see Buck talking to the buffalo guarding the entrance. Upon seeing him Maggie says "Look, it's Buck: Stallion of the Ci-moron." This was a reference to the Dreamworks animated title Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron which was released two years earlier. Coincidentally, this also implies that Dreamworks always poked fun at Disney in their own films, therefore this film returns the favor.
- This is the last film in the Disney animated features canon to be released on VHS (though there were Disney films outside the canon released on VHS after, the last being Bambi II).
Soundtrack
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Roseanne Barr | Maggie |
| Judi Dench | Mrs. Caloway |
| Jennifer Tilly | Grace |
| Cuba Gooding Jr. | Buck |
| Randy Quaid | Alameda Slim |
| Charles Dennis | Rico |
| Charles Haid | Lucky Jack |
| Carole Cook | Pearl Gesner |
| Joe Flaherty | Jeb the Goat |
| Steve Buscemi | Wesley |
| Richard Riehle | Sam the sheriff |
| Lance Legault | Junior |
| G.W. Bailey | Rusty |
| Patrick Warburton | Patrick |
| Estelle Harris | Audrey the Chicken |
Crew
| Crew Position | |
|---|---|
| Written and Directed by | Will Finn John Sanford |
| Produced by | Alice Dewey |
| Songs by | Alan Menken Glenn Slater |
| Original Score by | Alan Menken |
| Associate Producer | David J. Steinberg |
| Art Director | David Cutler |
| Film Editor | H. Lee Peterson |
| Artistic Supervisors | Jean Christophe-Poulain (Layout supervisor) Christy Maltese (Background supervisor) Marshall Toomey (Clean-up supervisor) Marlon West (Effects supervisor) |
| Supervising Animator | Chris Buck (Maggie) Duncan Marjorbanks (Mrs Caloway) Mark Henn (Gracie/Welsey/Rusty) Michael Surrey (Buck) Dale Baer (Alameda Slim) Russ Edmonds (Rico/Willies/Horses) Sandro Lucio Cleuzo (Sheriff/Jeb) Bruce W. Smith (Pearl) James Lopez (Farm Animals) Shawn Keller (Lucky Jack) |
| Based on a Story by Character Design Artistic Coordinator Production Manager |
Will Finn John Sanford Michael LaBash Sam Levine Mark Kennedy Robert Lence Joseph C. Mosier Dennis M. Blakely Tamara Boutcher |