Home on the Range

Disney’s latest conventionally animated feature opens with an Arizona-like vista in horrid hues of purple and blue – an inauspicious start for a western of sorts. The camera then ‘zooms’ in over the barren farmstead of a plucky old dear and her motley collection of angular animals. Maybe I’m mistaken; maybe today’s kiddies enjoy a ’60s-style colour palette and characters with pinched noses and pointy ears. Maybe they like bland orchestral blunders with vapid lyrics. Still, one mustn’t carp too much; the film unfolds at a sprightly pace, making it fair fodder for undemanding sproglets. As for the not unfamiliar premise: said farmyard inhabitants take on malicious property mogul who has an eye on their patch… The end.