To bring life to the colorful cast of “Home on the Range,” Goldstone and the directors enlisted some of the very best animators in the business, along with a great ensemble of voice talents. With its broad characters and zany story, this film gave the artists a rare opportunity to let their imaginations run wild and show how quick they were on the “draw.” The actors were equally inspired by the clever heartfelt script to deliver some of their most entertaining performances.
Mark Henn, Chris Buck, and Duncan Marjoribanks were the trio of top talents who guided the actions and personalities for the three distinctly different cow characters.
Buck, a veteran Disney animator who also served as co-director of the hit feature, “Tarzan,” was responsible for overseeing the character of Maggie, the feisty outspoken outsider voiced by Roseanne Barr.
“In real life, cows don’t really do a heck of a lot,” says Buck. “We went to a local dairy farm and spent time observing hundreds of cows. I thought I was going to see all these great cow motions, but all they did was stand and eat and then stand and eat some more. We had to push our characters to run and jump and do things in the film that cows don’t normally do. The dairy farm visit did allow us to see the subtleties of the animals. Looking at their faces, cows have very soulful eyes and a soft muzzle. They’re very expressive with their tails and the way they swish them back and forth. There’s nothing like seeing your animal character in three dimensions right in front of you.”
Buck got to see the more active side of cow behavior when he went on a cattle drive in Wyoming, and visited the local Equestrian Center in Burbank. On those occasions, he watched cowboy riders “cut” the herd and saw first hand how cows run.
“For the film, we ended up caricaturing how a cow would move,” he adds. “Our characters move semi-realistically and their anatomy is mostly correct. We fudged things a little so that our cows could jump, run, climb, and do things a real cow could never do.”
Buck’s biggest inspiration for the character of Maggie came from the vocal performance of comedienne Roseanne Barr.
“I love what Roseanne gives to the character,” says Buck. “She brings a sense of fun with her jokes and one-liners. But she also has some pretty subtle timing and a great deadpan delivery that I tried to capture. Sometimes it’s just a little look out of the corner of her eye that says it all. She also talks out of the side of her mouth a bit and we pushed that aspect with the character. Roseanne also has a tendency to squint, especially when she smiles, and that came through in the animation too.”
According to Barr, “The character of Maggie was like a real person to me. I thought of her as a person who just happened to be a cow. I know she’s a cartoon, but there’s a lot of depth to these characters. To play this role, I was fortunately able to connect with, what do you call it, my ‘inner cow.’
“I’ve always wanted to be in a western,” adds the actress. “I spent a lot of time on farms being from Utah, and my father was a huge western fan. I thought it was a very honorable thing to play a cow, especially one who figures out something new and has such good intentions. It was actually like a huge fantasy for me to be in a western. It was really fun to hear my voice coming out of the cartoon. It was just exciting and cool. I also love the songs in the movie, and think that everybody’s voice was fantastic. It’s the perfect soundtrack.”
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