Home on the Range

While this isn’t a great Disney cartoon, it is far better than last year’s lousy Brother Bear. Some innovative cows set out to capture a criminal cattle thief (voice of Randy Quaid), claim the $750 reward money and save their farm from foreclosure. The visuals remind of Warner Brothers animation at its best, representing an interesting departure for Disney animators. Roseanne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jennifer Tilly and Judi Dench provide fun voice work, with Steve Buscemi showing up late as a shifty cattle purchaser that looks an awful lot like a cartoon Steve Buscemi. The pacing of the film is a bit too frantic at times, getting a little hard on the eyes and making one wish for an editor who was a little more subdued in their approach. The fun story overcomes the pacing problem, and the end result is something that should please kids and adults. Disney has made claims that this will be the last of the hand-drawn animated movies (it’s supposedly all computer animation in the future), but I find that a little hard to believe. Musical numbers include the voices of Bonnie Raitt and k.d.lang.