Home on the Range

[blackcauldron85]

This is a podcast episode with John Sanford and Will Finn, the two directors of HotR. It's just over an hour long, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The HotR stuff really starts at 24:53 if you want to save a little time, but I thought it was all interesting.

Secret History of Disney's Home on the Range
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAbqyfGtxkM

Some highlights:

*I know that Sarah Jessica Parker was assumed to be Pearl on websites before the movie came out, but the podcast said that she was originally Grace, but when they rewrote the character, she didn't understand the character (being tone deaf). (They figured they needed one of the cows to be immune to Slim's power, or else there would be 3 main characters "unconscious" for a large part of the movie.)

*McDonald's wouldn't allow marketing of a movie with "Bullets" in the title, so the podcast says that's why the title was changed to Home on the Range. I'm not sure how that coincided with the fact that Bullets the calf wasn't part of the story anymore, though...

*Michael Eisner wanted The Willies to tell the story in flashback from jail, with 6 months left of production.

*One of the directors (it was hard to keep them straight sometimes) asked if HotR could be CGI but was told no.

*Previews went well.

*"HotR didn't appeal to anyone. Thomas Schumacher said it appealed to young and dumb." "They didn't understand who the true audience was." [It should have been for everyone, not just small kids...Jeffrey Katzenberg understood that but 2004 Disney didn't.]

*The directors and Michael Eisner liked a trailer that was made, and Marketing went ahead and used a different trailer, the one that ended up coming out.

*The film was delivered on time and under budget. The budget was $125 million, and they made it for $115 - $120 million. (Earlier in the podcast, they had said that a lot of the budget had been used up with the previous version directed by Mike Giamo and Mike Gabriel.)

*At the premiere, "you don't know if it's a failure or a success." Leonard Maltin liked the movie. I think it was John Sanford that said, "The look of the film is flawless. Storywise it's at least coherent."

*Under previous animation execs, the mindset was 'we're all a team, we stick together no matter how the film does.' Under David Stainton, "suddenly we weren't invited to meetings anymore." Both directors tried pitching movies after HotR and David Stainton wasn't interested. Making the directors feel blamed for the "failure" of HotR.

*John Sanford "made it clear" that he didn't want to collaborate with Will Finn again (per Will). John "can't watch that movie," but he is proud of some of it.

*"Everybody did their best and yet the movie's not that good."

[Disney's Divinity]

Perhaps McDonald's didn't think it was a good idea to have cow toys when most of their product comes from cows, and they just didn't want to say that.

[blackcauldron85]

^ That was briefly touched upon in the podcast.

*edit* This article also talks about this:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170107122 ... 06/24.aspx

[PatrickvD]

I remember from a deleted scene they had originally envisioned Alameda to march his army of hypnotized cows on Washington to take over the country and become President but they scrapped it because it was too ‘unrealistic’…

I mean, how prophetic, a fat orange-haired con artist marching an army of hypnotized cows on the capitol to steal the presidency… you can’t make make this up.

They literally predicted the future haha.

[carolinakid]

I actually enjoyed Home on the Range. I didn’t think it was the worst. I thought Roseanne had some good lines.

[Disney's Divinity]

I agree, I like HOTR despite its flaws, which are mainly the protagonist cow characters who have a rather trite dynamic (although at least we got Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly in a WDAS movie). The soundtrack was great as was the animation. I liked most of the comedy with Buck although I could understand how he might’ve annoyed some viewers; the triplet cousins and the goat all work as far as the comedy, too.

For me, the hardest films to watch are Brother Bear (the elk comic relief characters are the only thing I liked about it) and Chicken Little (I don't think I've ever watched it all the way through in one sitting).

[Farerb]

I decided to rewatch Home on the Range today. I have only seen it once a long time ago and for some reason I remembered this was a musical musical, but I realized that the only character who sings is the villain and the characters are aware of it.

Film isn't as bad as I remembered it but it's still unremarkable. When I watched it the first time, it was before I watched all the Disney animated shorts. After watching those I understood that they went for the same visual design as some of the 50s shorts like The Brave Engineer, A Cowboy Needs a Horse, Paul Bunyan and Grand Canyonscope.

This and Brother Bear are actually fine if you consider them to be more like the 70s-80s films - cute animal films that have a certain charm to them.

[carolinakid]

While never a favorite, I never understood the hate for this film. And it’s got Roseanne who I adore!

[DisneyFan09]

Now that this thread has been bumped up, the truth is that I`ve always liked Home on the Range. No, it isn`t the greatest animated offering ever made, but I enjoyed it for what it was. And I never understood why it was so shunned. Sure, the animation is a little ragged, but it`s otherwise fun, breezy and incredibly witty. The script is tight, music is fine and the characters are engaging enough. And sure, it`s almost contradictory to like something that is universally hated, but the truth is that I`ve always liked it.

For me, the hardest films to watch are Brother Bear (the elk comic relief characters are the only thing I liked about it).

Why don`t you like Brother Bear?

and Chicken Little (I don't think I've ever watched it all the way through in one sitting)

Agreed. Chicken Little starts out good in the first 18 minutes, but soon becomes bloody awful. It`s juggles between being unbearably mawkish and blatantly awkward (with the comedy)

[twihard]

This and Chicken little are underrated. Judi Dench is superb and Roseanne Barr is a hoot. Even low quality Alan Menken is better than the best of other songwriters. why were ppl so offended by the udders joke being real?

I read an interesting article once where Disney said they blamed the failure of the movie on McDonalds. That McDonalds promised to make toys for the movie but last minute cancelled saying they didnt want to make cow toys in happy meals when little kids could be eating a hamburger and asking whats in it. Disney said it was hypocritical cuz McDonalds had no problem with Finding Nemo toys but selling fish fillets.

[Disney's Divinity]

For me, the hardest films to watch are Brother Bear (the elk comic relief characters are the only thing I liked about it).

Why don`t you like Brother Bear?

I always found most of the characters off-putting and the plot heavyhanded. I remember the animation was fairly good though.