Home on the Range

In the old west, cowboys are bedding down for the night. A cow and her calf are going to sleep. The calf gets distracted and drawn away by a rabbit. The calf is soon lost and being hunted by a wolf. The rabbit and other small animals come to the rescue.

It is an MGM cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. It is an old style animation with the cow and calf. The rabbit is the most weird and interesting. I can see a Bugs Bunny wannabe in that drawing and writing. Instead of the calf, the cartoon should center more on the rabbit. It is not the easiest writing, but it holds the most potential. This is playing it safe.

In the dark of the night, a calf wanders away from its mother to play with a jack rabbit. But a big old wolf threatens the critter in this Rudolf Ising cartoon.

Ising and Harman were back working for MGM at this point, under slightly less favorable conditions than their old contract. Harman continued trying make sentimental fare, while Ising began making a transition to sillier stuff, refocusing the competition as Leon Schlesinger's products rather than Walt Disney. With a mix of "accurate" and cartoonish character design and actions, this one is clearly intermediate in Ising's evolution, aided greatly by Heck Allen's gags.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

Rudolf Ising made a lot of cartoons leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon rather than the laugh a minute kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied in cartoons. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. 'Home on the Range' unfortunately falls in the latter category. Not one of Ising's very worst (though among the lesser ones) by all means, with obvious strengths but with a good deal of big drawbacks.

Starting with the good things, the animation is very well done. It is fluid in drawing, vibrant and atmospheric in colour and rich in meticulous detail. The music is even better and performed with gusto, it's full of energy and character and is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, adding to the action and enhancing it.

A few parts charm and the voices are solid.

On the other hand, the story is paper thin and full of old-fashioned melodrama that holds no surprises whatsoever. Too often the cartoon is too sugary sweet and the over-stretched feel of the story makes 'Home on the Range' feel dull, very little energy here. This is further accentuated by the agreed overlong length, 'Home on the Range' easily should have been three minutes shorter.

'Home on the Range' is completely humourless and near-completely charmless, none of the content engages enough, while the characters are never interesting or even appealing excepting the jackrabbit.

In summation, nicely made but lacklustre and doesn't hold up well. 4/10 Bethany Cox