Home on the Range [VHS] [2004]

The story comprises of a thief named Alameda Slim, who is wanted in many states for stealing herds of cattle. The farmers go broke after losing all their animals and reluctantly auction their farm for sale. Molly (voice given by Roseanne), a cow, who has lost her home due to this situation, is now brought to a new one known as `Patch of Heaven'. However, things start to go downhill, when Pearl, the owner of the farm, has to put it up for auction as well, since she cannot seem to pay the bills for keeping it. Therefore, Molly, along with two other cows named Mrs.Calloway (voice provided by Dame Judi Dench) and Grace (voice provided by Jennifer Tilly), decide to find some way to obtain the money needed to keep their farm open, by catching Alameda Slim and acquiring the reward money. However, there are many obstacles in their way, which they have to face. Will they succeed in the end?

Home on the Range may not be a classic compared to previous Disney masterpieces such as `Beauty and the Beast', `Aladdin', `Little Mermaid' or `The Lion King', but it has its own charm. The storyline of the movie is simple, giving it the charm of old Disney Classics like `The Fox and the Hound', and not too complicated like `Atlantis, the lost Empire'. The score, composed by Alan Menken, goes exceptionally well with the theme of the movie. This movie has a great selection of the casting for the voices, such as Cuba Gooding Jr. (giving the voice for the exceptionally funny horse named Buck), Roseanne, Judi Dench, Randy Quaid (providing voice for the villain Alameda Slim) and Jennifer Tilly. I suppose the main reason this movie didn't do very well in the box office was because, considering it is the last hand drawn animated movie by Disney, the audience were expecting a movie that ended Disney's animation career with a big bang. However, if you watch the movie without any high expectations, you will be surprised how good it is. This is a well-crafted Disney movie, and should not be considered as being worthless. `Home on the Range' is one of Disney's better efforts.

OK, so it was never going to beat the onslaught of Shrek 2 this year, but Disney must have laid down plenty of manure to make this an grew into an enjoyable slapstick romp: great celeb voices, plenty of sly knowing humour - sorry, humor, including a dig at Dreamworks damp squib of animated western-ry - and what must be one of the trippiest cartoon sequences ever: someone had obviously been chewing some cowslip...

The disc has the usual assortment of Disney faturettes and simple games to keep the litte ones amused briefly and all in all its typical Disney above average cinema release: talking animals, dumb humans; good laughs, good animation, and a good buy - it'll be equally at home in your dvd collection (just be careful not to say 'Got Milk?').