Home On The Range

The Home On The Range DVD is loaded with enough features and gizmos to keep the young viewer happy for a good while. All the standard bonus materials are there: deleted scenes, scene selection and set-up. On top of this there is the Anytime You Need A Friend music video by the Beu Sisters, featured in the film. Then there's the Games and Activities section, which has the Joke Corral, where you can listen to all the animals' jokes as well as telling your own before hitting a big red button onscreen to gauge the reaction from the Lil' Patch of Heaven. This is all interactive and perfectly user friendly for kids.

Then there's Yodel Mania, where you can play a Yodel Memory game, or watch a short Yodelmentary about the history of yodelling from Africa to Tibet to the Swiss/Austrian Alps. This is fairly entertaining and informative showing you exactly how to yodel and what part of the throat you have to move to get started.

The Backstage Disney section includes audio commentary, a 15 minute Trailblazer documentary on the making of Home On The Range, a 10 minute Art Review and bonus short film, The Three Little Pigs.

Trailblazer is set in Arizona, featuring a dozen of the production team sitting round a fire with their guitars, talking about the evolution of the story and its characters. Roseanne Barr, Cuba Gooding Jr, Judi Dench, Randy Quaid, Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Tilly are all on show, breathing life into their characters with their voices. Best of all is the yodeler, who demonstrates his craft as more than just an Alpine stereotype.

Next comes the artistic side of things, from the backgrounds to the town settings, to the character designs and musical scores, which are also expanded greatly in the Art Review documentary.

The Making Of probably glosses over the trials and tribulations associated with the slow and painstaking process of feature length animation. If nothing else, it highlights in true bold colours how collaborative, wide- ranging and rewarding an experience it can be when things finally come together.

This is an excellent DVD, making full use of its potential in the user interactive market. Kids will especially appreciate the jokes and Yodel Mania bits, as well as a revised version of The Three Little Pigs, although, for me, the original story still beats it hands down.