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Friday, April 2, 2004
Clever casting and catchy lyrics save silly western
A suitable score by Oscar-winner Alan Menken ("Beauty & the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" /) and catchy lyrics by Glenn Slater certainly don't hurt this modestly enjoyable effort by Disney. Nor do its songs, sung by the likes of k.d. lang, Tim McGraw, Beu Sisters and Bonnie Raitt, who effortlessly lend their western twang.
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But "Home on the Range" belongs to its trio of "bovine" voice talent -- Roseanne Barr, Dame Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly -- who play with such tongue-in-cheek delight upon their public personas that it's hard to separate cow character from the celebrities. Writers and directors Will Finn and John Sanford perfectly capture the essence of who we believe each of the actresses are and incorporate that personality into the rowdy, raucous and brash Maggie (Roseanne), crisp and no-nonsense Mrs. Calloway (Dench) and the spacey new-age airhead Grace (Tilly).
When we first meet Maggie, who greets us with a view of her enormous udders and drolly states, "Yes, they're real. Quit staring," we can just hear the Roseanne of the long-running successful TV series wisecracking in her inimitable fashion. But Maggie, Mrs. Calloway and Grace are heroines of a rather pedestrian story line, and they make it seem better and fresher than it actually is with their sweetly adversarial gibes and loose, ad-lib-like delivery.
Larger-than-life heifer Maggie has been sold to Pearl's Patch of Heaven dairy farm by her previous home, the now defunct and bankrupt Dixon Ranch. It seems cattle and land rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) has been stealing steers all over the county by hypnotizing them with his yodel, forcing landowners into penury and then selling the cows to slaughter. He then buys up the land at public auction, exacting steep revenge upon all the ranchers and cattle barons who once treated him badly.
Add to the mix a deluded, self-important horse named Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a Clint Eastwood-like bounty hunter named Rico, belching pigs and a rabbit with a wooden leg and the chase is on to capture the vile Alameda Slim. "Home on the Range" relies less upon the legendary Disney animation than Menken's plush score and upon the oddly apt casting, which will keep adults as engrossed as kids.
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