Home on the Range:A Horrible Hodgepodge of Heifer Horror!

Home on the Range is one of Disney's worst animated features, with a predictable plot, overused cliches, and rather poor animation and visuals by Disney standards.

Maggie is a prize winning Dairy Cow whose farm herd gets stolen by Alamada Slim, a Pied Piper type rustler who hypnotizes cows by yodeling. No longer able to own her, Maggie's owner drops her off at farm called Patch of Heaven. The farm owner is in severe debt and has to pay $750 in three days before her farm is auctioned off. Maggie and two other cows, Ms. Calloway and Daisy, decide to catch Alamada Slim and claim the reward money (coincidentally $750) to save the farm.

The movie's main weakness is that it follows so many formulas in plot and character development that there are really no surprises. The way the three main cow characters interact with each other is something we've all seen before. The brash, blunt showoff Maggie clashes with the level-headed, British Ms. Calloway, and the clueless blond Daisy just acts as the typical bridge between the two. The conflict and then eventual resolution between these two characters is so typical that these characters just aren't very appealing at all.

There are a few moments where the film gets out of the mud, thanks to the talents of Alan Menken, the song writer for the film. The scene where Slim first hypnotizes cattle is actually very entertaining thanks to Menken's strong musical talents. The intro song, "Home on the Range," is very funny and goes well with a rabbit character's constant brushes with death. There are also a few funny scenes where Slim interacts with his dim-witted lackey's the Willie Brothers that produce a few chuckles.

Other than these few moments, the movie is just consistently dull. It would hardly be a spoiler for me to say that the cows catch the bad guy and save the farm, because this formula has been played out so many times. It actually took six story writers to come up with this movie, and one wonders just what the hiring standards were at Disney then.

The visuals of the movie are so incredibly simplistic, with environments being bare in details and lavish in garish colors. It's more like a misguided attempt to copy a Looney Toon than a genuine work of art. The character animation, while at times spirited (the enthusiastic horse Buck's a good example), also doesn't seem to be quite up to the quality of many of Disney's other features.

In spite of all this, Disney learned its mistakes from this film and have done much better since then. Still, Home on the Range just may be the worst feature they have ever produced. There are direct to video sequels better than this film.