Home on the Range Blu-ray Review

Posted July 4th, 2012 by Brandon A. DuHamel

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), French, Portuguese, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Subtitles Color: White
Region: ABC (Region-Free)
Rating: PG
Run Time: 75 Mins.
Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Blu-ray Release Date: July 3, 2012
List Price: $29.99

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Overall

The Film

Video Quality

Audio Quality

Supplemental Materials

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All Blu-rayDefinition.com screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

I hate to say it, but this Disney animated production is a highly pungent cow biscuit. From Roseanne Barr’s (Maggie) crude opening joke about her udders being “real” to Cuba Gooding, Jr’s (Buck) lame attempts at slapstick humor, this poor dog just won’t hunt, so to speak. Frankly, from the angular animation and unimaginative character designs to the implausible plot about a group of farm animals led by cow Maggie seeking an outlaw cow-wrangler for a bounty in order to save their farm, Home on the Range plays like a poorly done direct-to-video sequel or Saturday morning cartoon episode extended well beyond its limits. Even the outlaw, Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) feels like a cartoon cliché lifted from any number of Looney Tunes episodes. If Disney ever wonders why the folks at Pixar took over their animation empire, they need not have a debate over CG versus hand-drawn, they need only look back at a dud like this.

Video Quality

The colors and animation in Home on the Range just look absolutely magnificent in this flawless effort from Disney. The Blu-ray comes with a 1.78:1 framed AVC/MPEG-4 encodement that is rich in color, detail, and contrast with no apparent aliasing, compression errors, video noise or banding.

Audio Quality

Home on the Range has a more subtle mix than one would normally expect from an animated release, but it is a strong one nonetheless. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is finely balanced between the front and surround channels with a good amount of atmospherics in the rear and the occasional discrete sound effect making its way toward the back. Dynamic range is relatively wide as is the panning across the front and dialogue is full and clear.

Supplemental Materials

All video supplements are in standard definition. They offer a mixture of production featurettes and more kid-targeted materials.

The supplements:

Commentary with producer Alice Dewey, writer/director Will Finn, and writer/director John Sanford
Deleted Scenes:
- Filmmaker Introduction (1.33:1; SD; 00:00:37)
- Heroes, Villains & Cows (1.33:1; SD; 00:02:33)
- Slim for President (1.33:1; SD; 00:04:12)
- Coyote Chase (1.33:1; SD; 00:02:50)
- Meet Lucky Jack (1.33:1; SD; 00:04:42)
“Anytime You Need a Friend” Music Video (1.33:1; SD)
Trailblazers: The Making of Home on the Range (1.33:1; SD; 00:16:40)
Art Review (1.33:1; SD; 00:10:15)
A Dairy Tale: The Three Little Pigs (1.33:1; SD; 00:03:29)
Yodelmentary (1.33:1; SD; 00:02:43)
Joke Corral: Herd of Jokes (1.78:1; SD; 00:04:34)

The Definitive Word

Overall:

Questionable choices in casting, a razor-thin plot, cliché characters and unimaginative animation make Home on the Range seem like low-quality direct-to-video stuff; the only giveaway being the A-list cast. This will only be needed by Disney completists, despite the reference quality Blu-ray release.