7/10
2D Films Can Compete
25 May 2004
To say Home On The Range is a little dated looking is not entirely fair. We just are not used to seeing two-dimensional cartoon characters. So to some this film may run to tastes remindful of Saturday morning cartoons in years past. But there is a little more here than just how anthropomorphism is projected on the big screen.

Where Home On The Range does not measure up is in the laughs department. There are some awfully funny scenes in the more recent Shrek II, and one of those (involving an arrest scene) is of the two funniest I have ever seen in an animated film (the other is in Finding Nemo, when Ellen Degeneres speaks whale). And in that regard Home doesn't quite hit the mark.

The plot revolves around saving the farm. The animals living thereon (humans cannot save farms very often) contrive to do this through the usual convoluted methods. And it is somewhat interesting how this is developed. Interesting enough for your children, that is – there is not much here for the more adult crowds.

Cuba Gooding is the show stealer in the voice department. But the yodeling we hear by the cattle rustler early on is a close second.

There are some surprisingly neat looking scenes, and not many cartoons of yesteryear had characters drawn as sharply. Two dimensional film is not done by any means.

All in all this is a C+ effort. There are some sharp moments (watch Buck the horse run around the barn, check out the Rico (a decidedly un-Western sounding name) character, and listen to everything Jeb the goat says. They are the scene stealers.
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