Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Home on the Range

Welcome back to Deep Dive Disney. Today we’re covering one of the most infamous entries in the animated Disney canon, Home on the Range. Considered by many to be one of the lowest, if not the lowest point in the entire long history of Disney’s animated features. Some critics have even claimed that this film is ultimately responsible for the downfall of 2D hand drawn animation. I’d never seen the film prior to viewing it for the article, but needless to say, with its reputation, the inevitability of having to watch this film hung over this project like a black cloud of despair. Despite delaying it as best I could with a couple of Kim Possible articles, I still invariably had to face the music. Besides, I’m Wes of Deep Dive Disney! I got through Brother Bear, I called Ariel an insipid ginger twat with zero fear of reprisal and I sat through some of the worst cartoon racism 1950’s Disney could throw at me. There was no way in hell I was going to let some lame knock off of Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa psyche me out! I got this! So, I sat down to watch the film and, surprisingly… it actually wasn’t that bad. Yeah, call it the benefit of severely lowered expectations but I found this one to be far more enjoyable than its reputation would suggest. It’s still not great mind you, some of the characters can be very irritating and it is filled with some truly cringeworthy humor but for what it is, I still had fun with it. So, what’s the story. Well, we start with a prize-winning show cow with an attitude named Maggie being sold to a quiet little dairy farm called Patch of Heaven. Most of the animals warm up to her antics, but one of the other cows, Mrs. Calloway thinks she’s a bad influence due to her headstrong nature. However, Pearl, the owner of Patch of Heaven, learns that the bank is about to foreclose on her property unless she can come up with seven-hundred and fifty dollars, a lot of money in old west dollars. When the cows hear that there’s a seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollar reward for the capture of notorious cattle rustler, Alameda Slim, Maggie, who lost her original home because of Slim, sees a chance to get her revenge and save her new home at the same time. Along with Mrs. Calloway and their ditzy friend Grace, the cows embark on a journey to Slim to justice. So, let’s see why this movie isn’t quite as bad as its reputation would have you believe as we look at, Home on the Range.

Main Character:

We actually have three main characters this time around in the form of our three cows. Let’s start with Maggie. Maggie is voiced by Roseanne Barr. While this is long before she was canceled for a racist tweet, it’s still long after whatever relevance she had left after her sitcom ended had faded away so I guess we’re not really getting Roseanne at her best or her worst. As far as Maggie goes, she’s a type of character you’ve seen before, the new arrival who doesn’t quite fit in. While she’s the primary source of most of the cringeworthy humor in the film, I can’t bring myself to fully hate Maggie. As an extrovert who has a hard time fitting in myself, I relate to Maggie to a certain degree, even if she doesn’t always know when to reign it in.

Mrs. Calloway, voiced by Dame Judi “I’m a classically trained Shakespearian actress, what the bloody hell am I doing here” Dench. Calloway is essentially the polar opposite of Maggie. She’s a prim-proper no-nonsense cow who doesn’t like the idea of a show cow at Patch of Heaven. To be honest, the conflict between Maggie and Calloway is one of the weaker aspects of the film. Still, there’s nothing overtly wrong with Calloway as a character and her weird schtick about going berserk whenever she loses her hat like she’s Jet Li in the movie Unleashed was actually pretty funny.

Finally, there’s my favorite character, Grace voiced by Jennifer Tilly. Grace is probably the most happy-go-lucky of our trio of bounty-hunting cows. She’s sweet, lovable, kind and seems to at first be stupid but is actually a lot more intelligent than she appears… kind of what I’ve heard about Jennifer Tilly herself.

Villain:

It really wasn’t until Alameda Slim became a major presence within the plot that I really started getting into the film, because honestly, this guy is pretty awesome. If he on the level of a Hades or Maleficent, hell no, but he still has enough going for him that I’d call him a fairly underrated Disney villain. Slim, at least as I see him, is a bit like Yosemite Sam if he were a bit more intelligent and a little more ambitious. I actually have to hand it to Slim, his evil plan is actually one of the smarter ones I’ve seen in one of these films. Let me break it down. Slim rustles cattle from various farms and ranches, forcing the owners to sell their land. Slim then sells that cattle to a black-market livestock trader and uses the money to buy up the land disguised as his alter ego, Yancy O’Dell. Slim’s even smart enough to have a local bounty hunter on his payroll to help him cover his tracks under the pretense of trying to track him down. It honestly sounds like Slim has all his bases covered and the only reason his evil plan actually fails is thanks to a frankly absurd set of circumstances that not even Batman could have prepared for. By the way, that livestock dealer I mentioned, Mr. Wesley, is voiced by Steve Buscemi and looks exactly like what one may imagine a human version of Randall Boggs to look like. Also accompanying Slim are his tough looking pet buffalo, Junior, who serves as the guard to his evil lair, and his three dim-witted nephews who are unable to recognize him in his disguise. While that running joke is grating at first, it actually comes around to being funny after a while. While Slim is certainly pleased about all the money he’s making with this venture of his, it turns out his true motive is actually revenge. Turns out Slim once used to work as hired help for some of the most noteworthy ranches in the west but felt he was never appreciated for his hard work, though it’s implied that the ranchers simply didn’t like his yodeling. Yeah, that’s kind of a thing with old Slim, he takes his yodeling very seriously, to the point where he gets violent any time someone insinuates that yodeling is anything less than high art. Even his chosen pseudonym is a reference to his beloved hobby. Get it, Yancy O'Del, Y. O'Del. The best thing about Slim is his unusual method for rustling the cattle but we’ll discuss that a bit later. For now, Slim is a funny, entertaining, intelligent and fairly underrated Disney Villain.

Side Characters:

There a fair few side characters to go around here but I actually find that there’s not all that much to say about most of them. Afterall the film has three lead characters and a surprising number of villains so too many side characters will invariably make the film seem a bit crowded. Still, there’s one or two worth mentioning. First up is Buck, a horse with dreams of being a hero who idolizes a local bounty hunter named Rico. Throughout most of the movie, Buck is a bit of a jerk towards the cows. However, once he learns that Rico had been working for Slim all along Buck decides to do the right thing and Help Maggie, Grace and Calloway save the day. I also kind of enjoyed Lucky Jack, the one-legged rabbit who lives in the desert. I was really getting into his coyote and road runner schtick at the beginning and once he becomes an actual character, he’s still kind of fun.

Songs:

While it sure as hell ain’t The Lion King, some of the songs in Home on the Range are a lot of fun. I actually liked the opening number. It undoubtedly has that over-the-top goofy western flair, almost like something you’d hear in Blazing Saddles. The song Little Patch of Heaven was also pretty catchy and I actually found myself humming it in the shower quite a bit. However, let’s talk about what all really here to talk about. You may be wondering if there’s anything about this movie that people seem to universally enjoy, even despite its reputation. Well, like most good things in the movie, that happens when Slim shows up. Keep in mind, before we get to his song, we haven’t actually seen Slim in person yet. All we’ve gotten are wanted posters and frankly nightmarish flashbacks of the night he raided Maggie’s old ranch. Now though, Slim has found himself another herd to rustle, and we finally get to see him in action, in song form! The song starts out menacing enough with Slim bragging about how he’s the best cattle rustler in the west. One of Slim’s nephews tosses him what looks like a rifle and you think something horrible is about to go down, but then when it’s revealed to actually be a guitar, what started as a typical Disney villain song becomes anything but. Get this, it turns out that the reason Slim is such an effective cattle rustler is because he possesses the ability to hypnotize cows with the power of his yodeling and uses this to lead them back to his lair like some kind of pied piper of Hamburgerlin. (That was a terrible pun and I am very much ashamed of myself) The sequence that follows may be the trippiest sequence in a Disney movie since Pink Elephants, though thankfully, no drunken toddlers this time around. The use of bright and flashing colors was pretty cool, the glazed-over look on all the cows’ faces is hilarious and, I once again have to hand it to Slim, his yodeling doesn’t sound half bad. The whole thing feels like a crazy acid trip. I especially love the part where Slim starts yodeling the melodies of various public domain songs such as the William Tell Overture, Yankee Doodle and Ode to Joy. Is it a villain song on the level of Be Prepared or Hellfire, hell no, but it’s easily the best scene in this entire movie even if song itself contains one too many references to Slim's underpants. I actually found myself clapping along with the beat, which is something I never expected to happen in this movie of all movies. Well played, Home on the Range, well played.

Memorable Scenes:

Let’s be honest, we already covered the best scene in the film with Slim’s yodeling acid trip. However, there’s still a couple scenes I’d like to discuss. There’s this one scene early on where Maggie, Calloway and Grace walk my Maggie’s old farm and see it getting auctioned off. It’s one of the few scenes where Maggie isn’t acting completely obnoxious and shows genuine emotion. I also love any scene where Grace is singing off key. You ever have that one friend who’s a terrible singer but loves singing so much and is so sweet about it that you don’t want to break their spirit by saying anything even if it’s causing your ears to bleed? That’s Grace. Maggie’s reactions to Grace’s awful singing are always hilarious and I applaud any movie that can take a stupid running gag and turn it into a major plot point. In this case, it turns out Grace is so incredibly tone deaf that she’s actually immune to Slim’s hypnosis. That’s actually pretty clever.

Story:

So, this is where the movie falls flat for me. I honestly found the conflict between Maggie and Mrs. Calloway to be easily the most un-engaging aspect of the film. Half the time I didn’t even know who I was supposed to be rooting for. Why do we even need there to be tension between these characters? Why can’t it just be about three cows trying to track down a notorious Texas outlaw. Afterall, when the movie decides to be about that, it’s perfectly fine. The tension between the characters just feels so manufactured, like they had a certain checklist of clichés they had to fulfill. The film also has probably one of the most forced third act breakups I’ve ever seen. It feels so forced and it doesn’t even last that long, existing only to pad out the run time I guess. I get that tension between characters can make them feel more three dimensional but it wasn’t necessary here.

Since we already covered the Slim's musical cattle rustling drug trip, we're going to skip the Dark Disney Factor section and head straight on to the wrap up.

Final Thoughts: All things considered, this movie was actually a pleasant surprise. Does is have flaws, oh yes. Is the humor cringeworthy at times, again, yes. Is it an epic on the level of Beauty & The Beast or Aladdin, fuck no! However, I can still think of worse ways to kill eighty minutes. It's got some charming characters, a few memorable songs and a surprisingly underrated villain. Definitely not the best by any stretch of the imagination but also not the worst as many have claimed over the years. It's... okay, and given this films reputation, "okay" is better than anyone could ever have hoped for. Next time, we cover a film that actually has a positive reputation, one considered by many to be one of Pixar's best. Join me in our next article as Deep Dive Disney covers The Incredibles.