Home on the Range
Disney started using "name" actors for key roles in its animated films as early as 1955, with Peggy Lee taking the lead in "Lady and the Tramp." But it wasn't until the late '60s that the idea of pairing recognizable voices with animated characters who were reminiscent of them really began to take hold. That's when you had swing singer Louis Prima as swingin' King Louie in "The Jungle Book" (1967), snobby Eva Gabor playing a snooty cat in "The Aristocats" (1970), and Sir Peter Ustinov as the vain, childish Prince John in "Robin Hood" (1973). It only got better in the modern era. Who better to play a motherly teapot than Angela Lansbury? Who could bring a wise-cracking, improvising genie to life more thoroughly than Robin Williams? Jeremy Irons as a scheming, Shakespearean lion? Danny DeVito as a goat-man? You can almost see the writers and directors giggling with glee as they indulge in the "Who should play...?" game. Which brings us to "Home on the Range," a sly and witty new animated film that brims with perfect casting. When a part is written for a sassy, no-nonsense cow, who comes to mind more immediately than Roseanne Barr? A short, oily underworld figure is obviously Steve Buscemi, Patrick Warburton (who played Kronk in "The Emperor's New Groove" ) should clearly play a deadpan horse, and if anyone other than the doll-voiced Jennifer Tilly is meant to portray a touch-feely, New-Age cow, then I have not heard that person speak. Furthermore, I have to assume Cuba Gooding Jr. was chosen for the part of the sheriff's over-eager horse on the basis of his Oscar acceptance speech alone.
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