Disney Movie Challenge: Home on the Range (2004)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Home on the Range (2004)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

 I always hope when watching a movie that has a bad reputation it will prove it’s reputation wrong.  Unfortunately for this one it didn’t do that. Home on the Range is truly a bizarre film and not in a good way.  The production of this film is one I would love to know more about.  I really want to know who at Disney decided that what was missing in the world was a movie with Dame Judi Dench and Rosanne Barr playing cows.  And for added effect lets throw in Jennifer Tilly and Randy Quaid as a yodeling cowboy.  

The movie is about three cows Mrs. Calloway, Maggie, and Grace (Dench, Barr, and Tilly) who in an attempt to save their farm set out to capture the notorious outlaw Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) to earn the reward.  Also trying to capture Slim is the bounty hunter Rico (Charles Dennis) and the horse Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.).  When they catch up to Slim the cows witness how he is able to steal so many cows at once.  When Slim starts to yodel he hypnotizes the cows and gets them to do anything he wants.  Both Mrs. Calloway and Maggie get hypnotized but for some unexplained reason Grace does not and she must stop her friends from being herded up. The next morning a jack rabbit tells them that Slim is in an abandoned mine and that he can lead them to it.  They follow the rabbit and have a big standoff with Slim that involves a train heist.  

One of the good things you can say about this movie is it’s short and moves pretty briskly.  Other than that there isn’t much good to say about this movie.  I can see kids maybe liking this movie because it is very silly. As an adult it just left me agaped especially the scene when we see Slim yodeling and rounding up the cattle, that is like some psychedelic fever dream.  I can’t say enough about how odd the voice casting was in this film.  Judi Dench as a cow in the Old West is just bizarre.  Why would a cow in the Old West have a British Accent?  On paper I can see how pairing Barr with Dench would really highlight how opposite the two cows are,  but in the film it just doesn’t work. Maybe it’s because I find Barr’s voice pretty annoying.  While Jennifer Tilly might also seem like strange casting it actually works.   

Overall: The film definitely deserves the reputation it has as one of the worst films in Disney Canon. Sometimes a movie is made for kids and maybe it’s too much to expect more from it.  

Random Facts:

The last traditionally animated movie until 2009’s The Princess and the Frog. The movie was such a financial disappointment that Disney decided it wasn't worth the cost to make hand drawn animated films.

Director Will Finn wouldn’t direct another animated feature till 2013 when he directed Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return which was also a huge box office flop. 

When /Film did there ranking of all 58 Disney films at the time this was 57 and this is what they had to say  "The cast is, whatever else is true, unexpected: Dame Judi Dench, Roseanne Barr, Jennifer Tilly, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Randy Quaid all play some of the main characters, making for a…uh…unique aural experience." https://www.slashfilm.com/disney-animated-movies-ranked/ 

.  

Million Dollar Baby

This was a pretty tight year for the Oscar race and there was no real front runners.  The Aviator was one of the bigger movies and had the most nominations with 11.  Three of the 5 nominated movies were biopics The Aviator was about Howard Hughes, Ray was about Ray Charles, and Finding Neverland was about James M. Barrie the writter of Peter Pan.  But it was the smaller boxing movie Million Dollar Baby that was the ultimate winner. 

Million Dollar Baby is about an aging boxing trainer Frank Dunn (Clint Eastwood) who reluctantly starts traing a girl Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank).   Maggie is a girl from a small town who works as a waitress to make ends meet but her dream has always been to become a boxer.  She seeks out the best trainer she can find and that is Frank.  Frank is haunted by demons of his past recently had a boxer fire him for a more aggressive manager.  Seeing as Maggie will not give and is constantly coming into the gym Frank decides to help her out.  She becomes a world wide phenomenon and finally gets her chance at the title shot.  The two develop a father-daughter relationship as Maggis father died when she was young and Frank has not talked to his daughter in a long time.  About halfway through the movie turns from a boxing movie to a medical drama with an ending I didn't see coming. 

It is hard to talk about this movie without talking about the ending, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone.  I am glad I saw the movie when I did because it was when it first came out and I had no idea what it was about.  But not only does it turn into a medical drama but also has a moral dilema at the very end.     When Award season first came around I had not heard of this movie and was one of the last movies to get a wide release in early 2005.  As Clint Eastwood proved the previous year with Mystic River he has a way of getting great performances out of his actors.  Hillary Swank won Best Actress and Morgan Freeman won Best Supporting Actor.  Clint Eastwood was nominated himself as Best Actor but lost to Jamie Foxx for Ray.  I love how this movie took me by suprise.  I went in not expecting much and just your typical boxing movie but left feeling like I saw one of the few movies that makes you question your beliefs.  Great thought provoking ending. 

The one movie that I thought should have got more attention come award season was Hotel Rwanda.  While it did have two nominations for Best Actor (Don Cheadle) and Best Supporting Actress (Sophie Okonedo) it should have been nominated for Best Picture.  A really moving story about the Rwandan genocide.  Also, the biggest upset for me was the fact that Super Size Me lot Best Documentary.  It remains one of my favorite documentaries to this day and is the first documentary I saw in the theatre. 

Not really a big suprise in  my opinion but one of the biggest stories to surround the Oscars this year was that Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ didn't get nominated for any big awards.  The fact that Michael Moore wanted Fahrenheit 9/11 nominated for Best Picture and not Best Documentary means it had not chance of being nominated.  It was just pure propaganda.  The Passion of the Christ while one of the biggest movies of the year had a chance to get nominated but just a small chance since it was not in English and very rarely does a movie in a foreign language get nominated. 

Interesting many of the Best Actor and Supporting Actor nominees got there start on TV shows.
Best Actors: Clint Eastwood-Rawhide, Jamie Foxx-In Living Color, Johnny Depp-21 Jumpstreet, Don Cheadle-Picket Fences
Best Supporting Actors: Alan Alda-M.A.S.H., Thomas Hayden Church-Wings, Morgan Freeman-The Electric Company and Jamie Foxx again. 
Also of note Leonardo Dicaprio was nominated for Best Actor and did have a small role on Growing Pains right before it was cancelled. 

Oscar Trivia
For the third time Martin Scorsese lost Best Director to a former Actor (1980 to Robert Redford and 1990 to Kevin Costner)
Hilary Swank beat Annette Benning for the second time after upsetting her in 1999. Swank an unknown that year was a suprise upset for Boys Dont Cry over the heavily favorited Benning for American Beauty.  This year Swank was the favorite but Benning was unable to upset her. 
Million Dollar Baby was the last movie to date to be nominated for the Top 5 Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay) winning 4 out of the 5 awards.

Best 2004 movies according to IMDB Top 250
Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind-64 (one of the most original moves of the year and very glad it won Best Original Screenplay. Most movies this unusual do not get recognized by the Academy.)
Hotel Rwanda-127
Million Dollar Baby-153
The Incredibles-219
Kill Bill Vol. 2-236