Home on the Range

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 (Jennifer 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