April 2, 2004 | Although Home on the Range wears the Walt Disney brand, this animated Western seems closer in style and spirit to the anything-goes anarchy of a Looney Tunes romp. But don’t misunderstand: That observation is meant as high praise.
Writer-directors Will Finn and John Sanford take an anthropomorphic approach to horse opera conventions, pitting bovine and equine good guys against two-legged bad guys. When the local sheriff brings a foreclosure notice to Patch of Heaven, an idyllic Wild West dairy farm, the resident critters plot to raise a $750 mortgage payment for their beloved owner. Maggie (voiced by Roseanne Barr), a plump and prize-winning show cow, proposes a plan to capture Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), a notorious rustler who just happens to have a $750 bounty on his head. To collect the reward, however, she must draft two reluctant partners in crimefighting: Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench), a fussy British cow who’s not impressed by Maggie’s boisterous showboating, and Grace (Jennifer Tilly), a spacey-sounding, New Agey-influenced heifer who wants to sing in the worst way, and usually does.
Also figuring into the mix: Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a prideful stallion who dreams of doing derring-do while hunting dastardly outlaws; Rico (Charles Dennis), a steely-eyed, Clint Eastwooden bounty hunter; and Wesley (indie cinema stalwart Steve Buscemi), Alameda Slim’s Peter Lorre-like silent partner. Listen closely, and you’ll also hear a few well-chosen words by former Texas governor Ann Richards as a tough-talking saloon proprietor. Typecasting? You decide.
Finn and Sanford cleverly reference a dozen or so classic Westerns – including, after an apt adjustment of the widescreen frame, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly – while keeping their movie moving at the breakneck pace of Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1940s and ’50s. Indeed, the cows, horses and humans traverse rugged frontier terrain where Yosemite Sam and Wile E. Coyote would not be out of place.
The Western-flavored song score by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater ranges from the Texas swing of “Little Patch of Heaven” (warbled by k.d. lang) to “Will the Sun Shine Again,” a plaintive ballad sweetly rendered by Bonnie Raitt. And the well-cast vocal talents milk their cartoon roles for all they’re worth.
