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Home on the Range
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures / Walt Disney Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Animation | Comedy | Family/Kids | Musical | Western
Written by:
Will Finn
John Sanford
Directed by:
Will Finn
John Sanford
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 2, 2004
DVD: September 14, 2004
Running Time: 76 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for brief mild rude humor
Starring Roseanne, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Cuba Gooding Jr., Randy Quaid, Steve Buscemi, David Burnham, and Charles Dennis
When a greedy outlaw named Alameda Slim (Quaid) schemes to take possession of the "Patch of Heaven" dairy farm, three determined cows (Barr, Dench, Tilly), a karate-kicking stallion named Buck (Gooding Jr.), and a colorful corral of critters join forces to save the farm in a wild quest full of high-spirited adventure. (Disney)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
A sweet, raucously funny, comic Western that corrects a glaring historical injustice by finally surveying the Old West through the eyes of cows rather than cowboys.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Kevin Carr
Has a wacky charm and a feeling like no other Disney film in recent years.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Old-style animation slows down after a snappy start, but it's lively enough to keep kids from fidgeting too much.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
Belongs to its trio of "bovine" voice talent -- Roseanne Barr, Dame Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly -- who play with such tongue-in-cheek delight upon their public personas that it's hard to separate cow character from the celebrities.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
A good bet for family viewing. It's got a charming, simple plot, a smart Alan Menken score, and enough subversive humor to wring a chuckle or two out of Mom and Dad.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The visual effects are lovely to behold, and the songs by Bonnie Raitt, Tim McGraw and k.d. lang are fairly catchy.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's only 76 minutes long, but although kids will like it, their parents will be sneaking looks at their watches.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Whatever the narrative shortcomings, these characters have the warmth of antique painted storybooks, unlike the eerie plastic simulation of Pixar characters.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Any shortfalls in Home on the Range a conventional but perfectly pleasant entertainment, have more to do with the ABC's of storytelling than with the D's of animation.
Variety Joe Leydon
An engagingly rambunctious toon Western that likely will attract herds of family auds, if not multitudes of teens and tweeners, to megaplex corrals.
Read Full Review >Empire Olly Richards
Highly likeable, pleasantly unpretentious and plenty amusing.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The conservatively cheery artistic style suggests that the animation team has been reading Sundance merchandise catalogs.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
The film skews young, to be sure, and it isn't as memorable as the new Disney classics of the early 1990s, but there's still plenty here to hold the interest of viewers of all ages: delightful performances (particularly by Dench, plowing Angela Lansbury terrain), zinging comic dialogue and a soundtrack that's a wealth of sonorous riches.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Isn't good satire or good slapstick. It does have those lyrical, catchy Menken tunes, and the film perks up whenever Raitt or lang sing one of them. But much of this movie is deadly.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
What it really is is an unapologetic cartoon, a harum-scarum endeavor that's so comically frantic it wears you out as much as it entertains.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
This amiable, Western-themed animated effort from the Walt Disney Co. is a clear attempt to return to the more lighthearted cartoon style that was so prevalent before its onslaught of stately musical epics.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
An intended throwback to the halcyon days of colorful studio cartoons, more in the Chuck Jones style than Disney, and the animation of its characters and Western motif is fine. But the writing of co-directors Will Finn and John Sanford and their characterizations are embarrassingly bad.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
Although superficially an odd couple, the outspoken Barr and the restrained Dench work together surprisingly well and a steady stream of jokes aimed at both adults and kids keeps this genial entertainment galloping along at a brisk pace.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
This 76-minute Western tall tale isn't out-and-out bad, but strictly formulaic and an underachievement from the studio that made the dazzling "Snow White."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Assorted movie in-jokes should keep parents tolerably entertained, and Alan Menken's songs mercifully favor western swing over the expected twang pop.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Christine Dolan
Good for some giggles. Especially if you're under the age of, oh, 8 or so.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo
Will best be enjoyed on DVD. You can pop it in for the kids and spend the next 90 minutes or so doing something else.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Despite lovely songs from k.d. lang and Bonnie Raitt (written by Beauty and the Beast composer Alan Menken), this range is about as serene as a hen party.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Jennifer Frey
Charming as it can be, though, Home on the Range is still an overextended cartoon.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Even older kids will understand that Pixar does it so much better, not because of their computers but because of an intelligent attention to script and character and craft. If the people running Disney don't understand that much anymore, maybe they should turn out the lights and go home.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The best cartoons are built on the contradictory pursuit of meticulously arranged anarchy. But they never seem needy, or desperate for laughs, as Home on the Range does. The film seems hungrier for a pat on the head than a chuckle.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Comes across less as a fully realized work of storytelling than as a commercial for a corporation whose goal of entertainment has been replaced by that of making money.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
Should make about $750, which is how much they need to save the farm, but a little less than Disney CEO Michael Eisner needs to save his job.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.2 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
mark v. gave it an8:
Very nice movie. Great music and animation. Lovely Songs but only the story is a little bit simple.
Ben K. gave it a 3:
The over all movie itself was, in my opinion very dull. some of the jokes were ok. the only part I can say I liked was the yodeling techno cow song. even it could have been done better reminded me a bit of that purina cat chow commerical, with the neaon cats.
Thalia S. gave it a 2:
If disney had paid me for the half hour it would have taken me to properly render the herd of longhorns in the mines, I would have refused, just to avoid having my name in this Disney Flop's credits. I liked the technicolor cow scene, but Walt would be rolling over in his grave if he could see the high fee parking lot Eisner has paved over the naturally green paradise that the Disney name symbolized.
Chad S. gave it a 3:
"Atlantis: The Lost Empire" got a bad rap; made passe by the advent of Pixar, this charming 2-D cartoon was unfairly panned. "Treasure Planet", I didn't see because I'm an English major, and felt that the concept was dumber than the short-lived "Gilligan's Planet". "Home of the Brave" unlike "Atlantis..." and even, Dreamworks' "The Road to El Dorado" is a bore. The cow with the hat made me miss the chicken with the hat from "Chicken Run". "Home of the Brave" might've been fresh had it come out in the late-seventies. Is it just me, but weren't you grossed out by how the Rosanne cow forces you to objectify her udder, when she says, "Yeah, it's real." Gross! Strictly for kids, and the only joy an adult will get out of "Home on the Range", is the indoctrination of their offspring to film.
Beth M. gave it an 8:
It's surreal, fluffy, and not thought-intensive. You have to be in the mode to appreciate kung-fu horses and prehensile-tailed cows, but once you get there, it's a silly romp -- well worth hauling the 4-year-old to see it. Definitely gonna grab it in video.
Mark B. gave it a 4:
The last 2-D animated film from Disney (or so they're telling us, anyway) ends a classic trend with the proverbial whimper, not bang. Frenetic pacing is utterly worthless when combined with completely uninspired storytelling and comedy writing. The bovine trio is amazingly unlikeable (and the fact that they're drawn with such sharp angles that you could put an eye out actually trying to milk one of them doesn't help at all) and the jokes are way above the kids' heads while simultaneously being too childish for adults. The villain's three lookalike dopey sidekicks provide a few chuckles, the 1950s-era Tex Avery-like layouts are great, and I loved the "chicks with attitude", but overall Home on the Range reminded me again why Pixar soars while this and other traditional efforts have been struggling; Toy Story and Finding Nemo are written so well that their scripts actually got Oscar nominations, while the screenplays for this and Treasure Planet and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas are just plain fertilizer.
Devin gave it a 0:
Puerile, schlocky, contrived, dull. I can't say it any better than Sara Brady and Michael O'Sullivan already have, so I'll instead strip the issue down to it's core: This is, by far, the most aweful, worthless Disney film ever made.
