DisneyTips.com Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
It’s no secret that Home on the Range (2004) is one of Disney’s biggest flops ever – but did you know it also changed the course of Walt Disney Animation forever?
Set in the Old West, Home on the Range follows a trio of mismatched cows named Maggie (Roseanne Barr), Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench), and Grace (Jennifer Tilly) on a mission to capture the notorious cattle rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) to save their farm from foreclosure.
Credit: Disney
Like most Disney animations, the film delivers plenty of laughs and catchy songs. However, it notoriously bombed with critics, who panned its “garish visuals” and “dull plot.” As The Chicago Tribune summarized, “Much of this movie is deadly. Home keeps milking the same gags and throwing the same bull, and after a while, you feel cowed watching it.” Ouch.
With a box office take of just $145.3 million, the film’s bleak legacy has generated much discussion at The Walt Disney Company. Those involved in its creation have since claimed that the original vision was much stronger—and darker.
In his book “They Drew as They Pleased Vol. 6: The Hidden Art of Disney’s New Golden Age,” author Didier Ghez notes that the initial inspiration stemmed from the classic cowboy song “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” Allegedly, the film was intended to evoke the spirit of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).
Credit: Disney
Director Will Finn also remarked that “the story was originally conceived as a ghost story called Sweating Bullets, where a timid character would come and visit this ghost town in the West.”
While the specifics of what went wrong remain unclear, it’s reasonable to assume that creative redirection was influenced by interference from Disney’s higher-ups. The ultimate outcome was a significant disappointment that altered the course of Walt Disney Animation forever.
The lesson Disney reportedly took from Home on the Range wasn’t that audiences rejected generic storytelling but that they didn’t want hand-drawn animation. This was not the only film to spark such conclusions. The early 2000s were particularly challenging for the company, featuring a series of underperformers like Brother Bear (2003). However, Home on the Range was undeniably the final nail in the coffin for 2-D animation.
Credit: Disney
Following its release, Disney didn’t produce another traditionally animated film until The Princess and the Frog (2009). In fact, it has only released two hand-drawn films since then: this one and Winnie the Pooh (2011). Instead, after Home on the Range, Disney swiftly transitioned to 3-D computer animation with titles like Chicken Little (2005), Meet the Robinsons (2007), and Bolt (2008).
Today, we find ourselves firmly in the era of 3-D computer animation. While films like Frozen (2013) and Tangled (2010) have proven to be immensely successful for Disney, a significant segment of fans still yearn for the artistry of hand-drawn animation, believing the newer medium lacks soul and uniqueness.
Though the likelihood of a return to this traditional form seems slim—Disney has shown that it can achieve substantial profits without the extensive time, money, and labor that hand-drawn animation demands—one can’t help but ponder what could have been if Home on the Range had become the film Disney originally envisioned, potentially preserving this cherished aspect of its legacy.
What are your thoughts on Home on the Range?
