Jami Bernard
Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Doug Pratt
Ray Pride
Stu VanAirsdale

Home On
The Range
Directed by Will Finn & John Sanford
Disney

The lack of enthusiasm that greeted the traditionally animated Home on the Range last spring probably didn’t contribute all that much to the decision by Disney chairman Michael Eisner to step down in two years, but it certainly gave his detractors more ammunition to use in their barrage of attacks on his reign. In its favor, the 76-minute-long animated musical -- the 44th and last in a long and distinguished line of 2-D movies -- featured new Western-style songs by Alan Mencken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast); vocals by k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, and Tim McGraw; and the voices of Roseanne, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Randy Quaid and Cuba Gooding Jr. Even so, early publicity for Home on the Range did little to inspire hope in the minds of parents -- who might otherwise have accompanied their kids to the multiplex -- that they could avoid stepping into the hokey barnyard (literally) humor promised in TV ads. The cowgirls-to-the-rescue conceit (again, literally) will play better on TV, however, and Home on the Range ought to make up its budgetary nut in video sales. Typically, the bonus package includes deleted scenes, as well as a new animated short, making-of documentary, music video and DVD-ROM games.

And, just in case anyone still thinks the sensibilities of MPAA ratings board members are attuned to the mores of the 21st Century, it’s been reported that Home on the Range lost a “G” rating because one of the animated cows quipped about her udders, "Yeah, they're real. Quit staring." That’s bull

- Gary Dretzka