Home on the Range

• Round up the family and get ready for a whole lotta fun with Disney's hilarious animated comedy HOME ON THE RANGE. It's a "total joy," raves Gene Shalit, The Today Show. When a greedy outlaw schemes to take possession of the "Patch Of Heaven" dairy farm, three determined cows, a karate-kicking stallion named Buck, and a colorful coral of critters join forces to save their home. The stakes

Voices of Roseanne Barr, Dame Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Cuba Gooding., Jr. When a gang of outlaws want to take over a peaceful dairy farm in the Old West, its inhabitants-three clever cows and a stallion among them-try to outwit the bungling would-be usurpers. Animated. 2004/color/76 min/G/widescreen.A spiky animation style and cowboy yodelling give Home on the Range some charisma. A trio of cows--Maggie (voiced by Roseanne, She-Devil), Mrs. Calloway (Judi Dench, Iris), and Grace (Jenn! ifer Tilly, Bound)--hit the high prairie to track down a cattle rustler named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid, Kingpin) in hopes that the reward money will save their farm. With the aid of Buck, a horse with heroic ambitions (Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry Maguire), the bovine avengers track the villain to his lair and save the day, to the accompaniment of tunes warbled by k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, and Tim McGraw. These songs--composed by Alan Menken (who wrote the music for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast)--are the movie's strongest element; the characters are largely trumped up to fit a number of weak jokes that reference current pop culture, thus rupturing the movie's Old West world. Still, it looks nifty. --Bret Fetzer