HOME ON THE RANGE

2004

Home on the Range is Disney's 45th movie and the last 2D animated film made by the studio before shutting down the 2D department to focus only on 3D features. The 2D department would later be reopened by John Lasseter when he was named head of the animation department. Since then, two more 2D movies have been made: Princes and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh.

But instead of ending 2D with a bang, Disney produced one of it's worst films to date. Visually, its great. Story-wise, its not very entertaining.



I think that the main problem is the number of characters that they had to deal with, which made the story much more complex than what it should have been.
You have the 3 main characters, the Cows, Alameda Slim, then all the farm animals, Buck and Rico the bounty hunter, and the list goes on. The thing is that in the end the characters aren't that special, so you don't feel especially drawn to any of them.
No wonder it was forgotten so quickly. In a company which is known for its strong characters, you cant just rely on having nice visuals, and this is probably why it's probably Disney's least watched animated feature.

But on the bright side, visually the film is great. Influenced by the 40's and 50's style, which fits perfectly with the theme, it has some of the best backgrounds from the decade. The landscapes throughout the film look amazing.

The character design is another strong point of the film, but I would only include the animal characters in this part. I can see a bit of Provensen's influence in the design of the animals, which looks great animated by Disney artists. 

There's a high probability that you haven't even watched the film, because it was so bad.
But anyway, there are a couple of more bad movies coming before we get to Disney's next streak of good films (in my opinion starting with Bolt).