100 Disney Things [002]: Home on the Range
100 Disney Things [002]
My second post for this thing is dedicated to the underrated Disney movie, Home on the Range. No spoilers here, just me talking about why I love this movie and who I would recommend it to.
The basic story of Home on the Range is this: Maggie (the main cow in the center) is given away when her owner goes out of business, because all of his cattle were mysteriously stolen in the night by the cattle rustler Alameda Slim. She moves onto a new farm, which is also struggling with debt. In order to keep her new home going, she comes up with the idea to arrest Alameda Slim -- that way, she can collect the bounty money needed to save the farm and get her revenge. The new farm also had two cows before Maggie: Mrs. Caloway and Grace. Mrs. Caloway dislikes Maggie but she and Grace end up getting roped into the mission anyway. Basically, it's like a Western, or a play on a Western, but from the point of view of the livestock.
Also there's this horse voiced by Cuba Gooding Jr. who aspires to be a bounty hunter and beat up bad guys.
Reasons to watch it:
Click to view1) The music is done by Alan Menken. And it's really good. YMMV, of course, but speaking for me, I genuinely love every song on the soundtrack. The lyrics (done by Glenn Slater) are also pretty clever and fun to listen to IMO ("Bees by the dozen are buzzin' real peaceful / Every bluebonnet, doggone it, smells nice. / Even the tumblin' tumbleweed slows down to match the speed / on my tiny half-an-acre of paradise" -- damnnnnn). As a representative of the soundtrack, the song above blends a lot of the musical themes of the movie and then reprises the opening song. It's cute.
2) It is hilarious. I suppose it depends on what kind of humor you like -- a lot of the reviews I saw said that the humor was too childish and the movie as a whole would be really boring for an adult. But the humor worked perfectly for me (I dunno what that says about me...). The whole movie (visually and humor-wise) is very much like a Looney Tunes cartoon. (My friend describes it as Animaniacs if it were feature-length -- that kind of silly humor.) You can consider this a plus or minus.
3) It features three female protagonists. I believe the only other animated Disney movie that can make the same claim is Sleeping Beauty. Admittedly the protagonists are animal rather than human but it's still a pretty awesome creative decision, you have to admit.
4) It has heart. In case you're concerned that the movie is just slapstick and animal antics or whatnot. The theme of friendship is maybe not really creative or particularly moving or anything new but it's still there.
Obligatory sad rain sequence.
Reasons you might want to skip it:
1) The animal protagonists. I understand if having three cows as main characters is sort of a turn-off. I feel like it takes more effort to be engaged by movies with talking animals as opposed to people, and maybe it takes more disbelief-suspension too, especially for a plot like this.
2) Roseanne Barr voices the main character. This doesn't bother me personally but I've seen people who HATE her and/or the sound of her voice. I agree that her voice can be kind of obnoxious but Maggie is a very loud and obnoxious character and I actually like that about her. I know, though, some find brash/in-your-face main characters really annoying, so...
Bizarre character designs. Bizarre character designs everywhere!
3) The art style. The art isn't bad but the movie has its own peculiar art style that might be bothering (for example, the way the cows' hipbones jut out like that bothers me... and the pointy nostrils WTF!) and might also seem... lazy? If I had to compare it to another Disney movie, I would say The Emperor's New Groove or Atlantis: The Last Empire -- very exaggerated character designs. In particular, I really dislike Alameda Slim's bizarrely top-heavy design... That said, even though the character designs are a bit meh, I really love the backgrounds. They are also stylized but I find them really beautiful. Like, I'm talking scenery porn level here.
Did I just smuggle a positive into the negative section? Yes. Yes I did.
4) Some of the humor does fall flat. I will admit this despite how much I love the humor of this movie. Once one of the characters start yodeling, your reaction will probably be to shake your head in secondhand embarrassment. And then there's the occasional butt/underwear joke and you're just like :|. But still, hopefully the rest is entertaining.
And one last sales pitch:
My RL friend and fellow Disney buff is so far the only person I've met who actually likes Home on the Range EVEN MORE than I do, but his reasons for liking it are a bit different from mine. The reason he likes the film so much is because, in a way, it's an allegory for the state of the Disney Animation Studios themselves at the time the movie was being made. Like its story, Home on the Range itself was a last hurrah, one daring desperate romp, to save the "farm" (the 2-D animation studio), and, in particular, the song "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again?" seems almost a depiction of the general atmosphere at the time (his interpretation). So in terms of Disney history, I feel like this movie is actually kind of significant. :P
If I were to compare Home on the Range to a slightly more popular Disney film, I would liken it to The Emperor's New Groove. Like mentioned above, their art styles are comparable and so is their silly, frenetic humor. Both movies sort of started out as adaptations of short fairy tales (HOTR draws from "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" while TENG draws from "The Emperor's New Clothes" (also, "The Prince and the Pauper") -- although, for both movies, you'd hardly be able to guess that based on the final product. And finally, they both have overarching themes of friendship and teamwork.
If you're expecting a Renaissance movie, I think you'll be disappointed with the complete lack of "magic" in this film. It will seem quite a step down from Disney's glory days. If you're looking for a silly, post-Renaissance movie, though, COME ON IN.
I'll be doing other underrated-movie-appreciation-posts like this (Brother Bear is definitely getting one too). If you have suggestions for future posts for this meme, you can leave them over here.