Home on the Range (2004)

Walt Disney Feature Animation had been interested in making a western themed comedy for many years, and several different storylines were explored during the film’s development period. One early version of the story, entitled “Sweating Bullets,” followed a little calf named Bullets, who wanted to be more like the horses who led the herd. In 1999, story artist Michael LaBash suggested a surprising approach involving three cow protagonists who become bounty hunters to save the farm. Other story artists and writers contributed to the new idea – including Sam Levine, Mark Kennedy, and Robert Lence and Shirley Pierce. Directors Finn and Sanford came on board in October, 2000, and helped to shape the story further and write the final screenplay.

Sanford recalls, “When we came on board, we had a free hand. The song ‘Little Patch of Heaven’ was already in production, but other than that we had no restrictions. We knew we wanted to make an upside-down western where the cows are the heroes instead of the cowboys. And from there, we had the freedom to move in any direction.”

Finn adds, “The good news was we could make it our own, in any shape or form we wanted. The bad news was we had to move the project along quickly. It was like jumping on a moving train. We were pretty bold with the story and with the arcs of the characters. Buck and Slim were the characters that needed a lot of work. Buck was unlikable and arrogant. Instead of being the best bounty-hunting horse in the West, we made him this sort of untried, young hopeful character who wanted to be a hero but never had a shot.”

“Figuring out what to do with Slim was another major hurdle for our story team,” adds Sanford. “We went through so many motivations and so many different reasons for why he was doing what he was doing. The problem was we had heroes who had absolutely nothing to do with the villain. When we came up with the idea that Slim was stealing cows to buy up the land, it all started to fall into place. By going after the land, and specifically ‘Patch of Heaven,’ we gave the cows something to gain by catching him.”

Another major piece of the story puzzle fell into place with the inspired idea to cast Roseanne Barr as the outsider cow, Maggie.

Sanford explains, “Will and I have been huge fans of the Roseanne show from way back, and I loved her HBO specials. But the idea to cast her really came from my wife Sara. I was showing her some scenes from the movie, and she was having trouble liking or understanding the Maggie character. She just blurted out, ‘Why don’t you get Roseanne?’ Will and I had been racking our brains trying to figure out what kind of personality might contrast with Caloway and Grace. This seemed like a great idea and when I brought it up at the Studio, everyone seemed to agree. Suddenly we had a character who was disruptive and a consensus breaker.”

Finn adds, “Maggie adds a tension that wasn’t there before. Even if they do save the farm, will Maggie ever fit in? And is Mrs. Caloway going to accept her? It made the tension that we always wanted to have between those characters real.”

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