Anssi Vartiainen Home on the Range was so bad that it, for the first time in history, shut down the traditional hand-drawn animation at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The talents and creative juices of the team that had brought you such films such as The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast were finally completely spent and this was their last pitiful attempt to scrape something together.And it shows. It feels more like a B-studio direct-to-video kind of nonsense than anything from arguably the greatest animation studio on Earth. Everything, from character designs to the actual characters to song numbers, is either laughably cheap or just so bizarre that you have to wonder what they were smoking at the time.Now, to the film's credit, it's not the worst animated film I've ever seen. The quality of animation is not as high as it used to be, but the backgrounds look nice, the characters move well - even if they are oddly designed - and the songs are merely bland instead of awful. Plus, there's pink elephants segment in the film. You know, like in Dumbo, when everything just goes bat guano insane, the colours try to give you a seizure and its glorious madness for a few minutes. I cannot truly hate a film that has a scene like that.But then, the story. It all starts with a cow making a breast implants joke. Just... let that sink in for a minute. That's how they start a Disney film. And believe it or not, it's downhill from there. Three cows are about to become homeless as their farm is to be sold due to debts. They have the bright idea to leave the farm in order to catch a notorious cattle stealing fugitive, whose prize money just happens to be the exact sum the farm needs. What a happy coincidence. Along the way numerous comic reliefs are met, hijinks ensue, the action scenes are so hard to follow that you stop bothering after the first one, more comic reliefs are met and in the end we all have our big happy Disney ending. Audience cheers because it's over, roll the credits.I don't know why this film became as bad as it is. Perhaps studio executives intervened, perhaps no one cared anymore, perhaps they actually thought they were making a good film. Impossible to say. Still, it is very close to being the worst Disney film I've ever seen. And I'm counting the direct-to-video sequels in that. Only see it if you want to say you've seen them all.

morrison-dylan-fan With Easter coming up,I started to search around for a 2004 animated film which I could give to a friend as a gift.Taking a look at a list of Disney titles from 2004,I spotted the movie credited with killing odd the studios hand-drawn method!,which led to me getting to take walk on the range.The plot:After all of their other cows have been stolen by infamous outlaw Alameda Slim,the farmers decide that they have no choice but to sell their last remaining cow Maggie,to Pearl Gesner-owner of Little Patch of Heaven,the last remaining farm that Slim has not destroyed.As Maggie tries to get on with Gesner's cows Mrs. Caloway & Grace,Gesner receives a visit from Sheriff Sam Brown,who gives Gesner the bad news that she is $750 in debt,and that if she does not pay in 3 days,then her farm will be put up for auction.Horrified at the threat of losing their home,the animals start searching round for a way to pay the $750.Getting close to giving up all hope,Maggie,Grace and Caloway spot a sign offering a $750 ransom for the arrest of Slim,which leads to the trio leaving their Little Patch of Heaven behind,for the great range of the outdoors.View on the film:Originally planned as an adaptation of the Pied Piper (some bits of which remain) the screenplay by 16 (!!) writers is never able to fully decide on what the movie should be,with the Spaghetti Western action riffs running at a blazing pace,which are turned down to simmering pace,as the movie builds a very dry friendship between Grace,Maggie & Mrs. Caloway (voiced by the fine trio of Judi Dench/ Roseanne Barr & Jennifer Tilly.)Whilst the title has an uneven pace,the writers do well at lighting up the movie with a number of delightfully oddball moments,from a would-be action hero horse,to a yodelling boo-hiss bandit.Backed by a selection of disappointingly dull songs,co- writers/directors John Sanford & Will Finn give the title an extremely distinctive appearance,by giving all of the characters and locations a triangular appearance,which gives the movie an oddly "edgy" atmosphere.Along with the rough edges drawing style,Sanford and Finn also take a minimal approach to the details to the colours,which helps to give the movie a delightfully mad-cap feel,as the film goes from splashing a sharp Spaghetti Western spoof,to a near fairy-tale spin on the farm,as Gace,Maggie and Mrs.Caloway find their home on the range.

TheBlueHairedLawyer Whatever happened to the days when animation tried to engage kids, be intelligent and exciting and funny? Home on the Range came out when I was in elementary school and I still remember all the hype it was getting. At the Wal-Mart in Cape Breton, some lady gave my sister and I a magazine with a poster for it, she was handing them out to every kid going in there. Kids were always talking about it and wanted to buy toys of the characters.When the movie was released in Canada, kids saw it and stopped going on about it. They were all really disappointed, to say the least.I recently saw this movie and found it to be really overrated. The animation was cheap, the voice cast was incredibly annoying, the soundtrack was hokey and lame and there was nothing funny about the movie at all. It was also unnecessarily weird; one scene has an obese man singing about how he yodels to hypnotize cattle, and he starts talking about how his pants are sized XXXXL. What the hell? If this type of movie is what passes for entertainment these days, then it makes me proud to have cancelled my cable TV service.

Mitchell McRae This moooooooooooooovie sucks! It's just as Seth Nelson, JTurner82, and Avwillfan89/Lisa Muñoz said. What's the worst part of this moooooovie? The part where the cows are at the fair, thinking they're being attacked, and run for shelter in...wait for it...wait for it...WAIT FOR IT! OK, I'll tell you! They take shelter, in, a, SALOON BAR! Can you guess what happens next? Chaos ensues! And guess what else? One of the saloon GIRLS in the bar, is revealed to be a TRANSVESTITE! IN A KID'S CARTOON! And you know what else they do in this mooooooovie? They make remarks like "Yeah, they're real. Quit starring!" IN REFERENCE TO A COW'S UDDERS! And then, later on in the moooooovie, the cows are stalked by a pair of steers, both of which make the following remark: "Well maybe we can help you! Maybe we can help EACH OTHER!" How suggestive is that? And did you know, that Disney ALMOST QUIT making 2D animation COMPLETELY because of this moooooovie? So yeah, if you're lookin' for a great, lovable story with a farm setting, THIS AIN'T IT! Watch Charlotte's Web, Babe, or Gordy instead! They are all much better! Also, you know what I think about Alameda Slim (it's ironic because he's fat!)? I think he represents Michel Eisner, the way he stole all these cows for a quick buck? Just like how Eisner made this crappy cow moooooooovie and was also responsible for the equally bad flops Atlantis and Treasure Planet! Brother Bear, Bolt, and Lilo & Stitch were the only GOOD movies from this era! And it wasn't until they released Bolt that they finally got it right again, by making The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, and Wreck-it Ralph! But this is to 2004 what The Black Cauldron was to 1985! Just like how I think Bolt represents the pre-renaissance that was Oliver & Company! And The Princess and the Frog = The Little Mermaid, Tangled = Beauty and the Beast, Winnie the Pooh = Aladdin, and Wreck-it Ralph = The Rescuers Down Under! I'm a-hopin' that The Snow Queen will be The Lion King! But this is the dumbest Disney mooooooooovie in their official animated classics canon ever made! I mean, The Black Cauldron was also horrible, Atlantis boring, and Treasure Planet the same as Atlantis, but this is the worst! The ONLY way this could EVER compete with the likes of Bambi or The Rescuers is if it was compared first with something as bad as Epic Movie or Jack and Jill! But bottom line, do NOT watch this mooooooovie, watch Bambi, Dumbo, The Lion King, The Rescuers, or The Fox and the Hound instead! I rate this mooooooooovie as a 2/20! And that's because I like the chickens and the pigs!