At left is the movie's original logo, as presented
in early 2001 at an internal Disney conference.

Directed by: Will Finn and John Sanford
Music by: Alan Menken and Glenn Slater
Production Start Date: Spring 2001 (animation production) & Early Summer 2001 (voice session work)
Budget: Disney hopes the film can be made for significantly less than $90 million
Release Date: 2004 (pushed back from its original November 26, 2003 slot)

CAST

The three heroines: dairy cows Maggie, Grace and Mrs. Caloway... Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly and Roseanne (not confirmed)
Buck, the sheriff's stallion (formerly Jake the Horse): Cuba Gooding Jr.
Alameda Slim: Randy Quaid (not confirmed)
Pearl (the farmer owner): Sarah Jessica Parker
Willy: David Burnham (The King and I)
Ja'Net DuBois
And the singing voices of Jason Graae, Gregory Jbara and Trisha Yearwood

STORY

Some might think the great heroes of America's fabled West are the cowboys or the lawmen. But of course we all know the real hero of the west: the cow. Disney has opened the stable door on these unsung heroes in an hilarious comedy: a woman (Sarah Jessica Parker) who can't make the mortgage payments on her farm, is faced with eviction. Three dairy cows (Maggie, Grace, and Mrs. Caloway) band together as boving bounty hunters and set out to nab a notorious cattle rustler, a wanted criminal named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) whose capture carries enough reward money to save the farm. The cows get help from Buck the Stallion (Cuba Gooding Jr., who is frustrated about being just the sheriff's delivery horse, and wants to capture Alameda Slim to obtain the glory that has so far eluded him). But little do they know, as Alameda Slim has a secret weapon--an hypnotic yodel that mesmerizes his bovine pursuers... Home on the Range is an animated musical western told from a cow's perspective. Not surprisingly, cowboys will reportedly not drink, smoke, cuss, or carry guns.

INTERESTING FACTS

• This is the project that kept Mike Gabriel and Mike Giamo busy since 1995's Pocahontas, though they were dropped from it in October 2000, before production started. Will Finn (lead animator on Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and director of The Road to El Dorado) and John Stafford are replacing them.

• In August 2000, when the project was revamped from the ground up, the original Sweating Bullets title (with a G) was rumoured to have been modified to Sweatin' Bullets by Disney, in order to give it a tone better adapted to the new premise: early versions being supposedly so completely politically correct and non-offensive the movie turned out very bland. Nevertheless, the first logo picture released seems to prove this rumour wrong. Among other changes, the title character, a bull named Bullets, was supposedly dropped from the movie.

• Voice session work began in the early summer of 2000, but since Disney decided to retool the project altogether, most voice work will probably have to be done all over again.

• Disney News scanned the pictures below, taken from the movie's internal preview: [BONNIE'S NOTE: I did not post the pictures since I didn't find them particularly relevant to this web site.]

• This will be Disney's first animated musical since 1998's Mulan. "Is the musical coming back? Why yes. We've got musical cows," said producer Schumacher.

• Country superstar Dolly Parton is rumoured to provide the singing voice of one of the character.

• Disney is planning to relaunch the Frontierland attraction at Disneyland, using this movie's characters as its new focus.

• After Antz and Pixar's A Bug's Life, The Road to El Dorado and The Emperor's New Groove, Jeffrey Katzenberg's Dreamworks is once again putting a project with a theme similar to a Disney blockbuster on the fast tracks in an attempt to get it out first: Spirit's production was given a start on February 22, 1999. Spirit is a western taking place in the 1800s, featuring horses as the main characters (including the title name), and also the first animated film in Cinemascope. A western from the point of view of a horse named Spirit, a western from the point of view of a bull named Bullets -see any similarities??

• Short clips were made available for the first time in early July 2001. Buck the stallion As of July 2001, Alan Menken already completed the first three songs for this musical, one of which was recorded by KD Lang.

• A group of country singers called the Willies (likely headed by David Burnham) are rumoured to be narrating the feature in songs, the way the Muses did with Hercules. They are the three sons of the villain, a cattle rustler who steals herds of cattle by yodling (Pied Piper like).

• Tarzan's co-director Chris Buck was reportedly originally supervising the villain Slim, but was asked to switch characters with animator Dale Baer (The Lion King, The Emperor's New Groove) who had started working on Meg the cow, for the new directors didn't like Chris's work.

• Mark Henn (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan) will supervise Grace the cow, Russ Edmonds (Tarzan, Atlantis) will work on the villain Rico and the Willies (Slim's nephews); Duncan Marjoribanks (The Little Mermaid, The Prince of Egypt) supervises Mrs. Calloway (a cow); Sandro Cleuzo (Anastasia, The Emperor's New Groove) oversees the sheriff and Jeb (the sullen goat), Mike Surrey works on Buck (the sheriff's horse), and Bruce Smith (Tarzan, The Emperor's New Groove on Pearl (the farmer owner voiced by Sarah Jessica Parker). Alameda Slim has a secret weapon--an hypnotic Rumours started to float around in April 2002 that Disney had changed the title of its 2003 animated feature to Home on the Range. Also more rework will be done by the Disney artists: another character may have many scenes reanimated--all because the main character is supposedly now voiced by comedy actress Roseanne.

• In August 2002, an Animated Movies spy visited Disney's feature animation gallery in California where Home on the Range was in post-production. "This one rabbit character that's cooking characters looked cute, but otherwise the characters look old. The hero reminds me of [The Emperor's New Groove's] Kronk, overweight with moustaches and brown and orange clothes. When he is away apparently, the farm turns into a Broadway set from the 30s, with [Busby Berkeley-inspired dance numbers] where dozens of cows dressed as co-stars perform synchronized dance routines. The backgrounds look ugly and the movie's merchandising looks even worse."

• Contrary to rumor, Walt Disney Feature Animation's recent decision to swap the release dates of its upcoming releases, Home on the Range and Bears was not made because Home on the Range is still bedeviled with story problems, according to Jim Hill Media, but to leverage the upcoming release of the Platinum Edition of The Lion King to promote Bears. "Actually, now that Roseanne is in place to provide the voice for the film's lead cow, I'm told that this project has finally begun to gel. And that Home on the Range may now end up being one of the funnier films that WDFA has ever produced."

Thanks to Jan M for sending this article, which appeared on the Animated Movies web site.

Return