Home on the Range is the 44th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures on April 2, 2004. The film is the forty-fifth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, and was named after the popular country song "Home on the Range". It was the last movie in the canon to be released on VHS.

The film stars the voices of Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Steve Buscemi, G.W. Bailey, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Randy Quaid.

Plot

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 horse 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 CGI 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 both 2D animation and 3D live-action film, The Princess and the Frog. 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.

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. 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.

Critical reception

Critics gave the film mixed reviews because they felt it was weak on plot . Rotten Tomatoes reported that 54% of critics gave positive reviews based on 111 reviews. According to Metacritic, the film's average rating was 50%, based on 30 reviews. Users gave the film a 4.2/10 approval rating based on 12 votes. However, the film was universally praised for Alan Menken's return to Disney animated features.

Box office

The film had a budget of about $110 million, making a U.S. box office gross of $50,026,353; but overall only grossed $103,951,461 worldwide, thus becoming a moderate box office failure.

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 the Buffalo
G.W. Bailey	Rusty
Patrick Warburton	Patrick
Estelle Harris	Audrey the Chicken
Sam J. Levine	Willie Brothers (speaking)
David Burnham	Phil (singing)
Jason Graae	Gil (singing)
Gregory Jbara	Bill (Singing)

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 Marjoribanks (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 and Mark Henn (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

References

External links

• Official web site
• Home on the Range at UltimateDisney.com