Home on the Range (2004)

Ok, so it has to be done at some point.  Let's get to Home on the Range.

The Movie:

Home on the Range is the 45th movie in the Disney Animated Canon.  For many Disney fans, this is considered the low point for Disney, though in reality, the movie just before (Brother Bear) and after (Chicken Little) received far worse reviews.  In many minds, though, this is the worst Disney film, and the fact that it was a box-office bomb helps their case.

Home on the Range begins with Maggie, a show cow, being sold to another farm after all the other cattle on her ranch are rustled by Alameda Slim.  This farm is called Little Patch of Heaven, and it is home to two other cows, Grace and Mrs. Caloway.  When the sheriff drops by, he says the farm will be foreclosed on by the bank in three days unless the owner can pay $750.  It just so happens that is the reward for bringing in Alameda Slim, so the three cows set out to capture him and save their farm.

Oh boy, this movie is pretty bad.  First of all, it's boring, with a simple plot and stupid dialogue.  The animation style is poor and not what you usually see in a Disney film.  The main character, Maggie, is played by Roseanne, and her shtick is grating and at times crass.  You can really tell that Disney had given up on making quality 2D animated movies by this point.

Perhaps the only bright spot is the music, sometimes.  Alan Menken did the score, and it has some nice moments, but at times it just simply outclasses everything around it.  Some of the songs are nice too.  Apparently several were written early in production, when this movie was going to be a little more focused.  The two best are "Little Patch of Heaven," sung by k.d. lang, and "Will the Sun Ever Shine Again," performed by Bonnie Raitt.  The former was written back in 1999, and was already recorded before the directors were even brought on board.  The latter was written in response to the 9/11 attacks.  Both songs, like all those in the movie, had lyrics by Glenn Slater, who Menken would later use for Tangled, the TV show Galavant, and several Broadway shows.

Presence in the Parks:

Of all the movies from this era that had an impact on the parks beyond some character meets around the time of the movie's release, who would have thought it would be Home on the Range.  Big Thunder Ranch had opened in Disneyland in 1986, and it closed in 1998 with the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame overlay.  The area closed except for corporate events, until it reopened in 2004 as Little Patch of Heaven, tied to Home on the Range.  The Home on the Range elements mostly disappeared in 2006 (though a few random ones remained a bit longer), but Big Thunder Ranch remained another 10 years until closing in 2016 so the land could be used for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.