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  Home on the Range Production NotesBust A Moo.
Life is at its best for the happy animals at “Patch of Heaven,” a “pretty as pie” dairy farm way out west owned by a kindly lady named Pearl. Seldom is heard a discouraging word except perhaps from Jeb, a cantankerous old goat who thinks every tin can belongs to him. In her unofficial role as barnyard boss is Mrs. Caloway, a fastidious British cow with an air of authority and a stylish straw hat. Grace, the younger cow, is wide-eyed, a bit naïve, and has a penchant for new age thinking.The farm's other inhabitants include a colorful assortment of pigs, chicks, and ducks.
This idyllic life is shaken to its core by two major events. A sassy show cow named Maggie (three time winner of the Golden Udder Award and the original Happy Heifer) comes to live at the farm when her owner's land is foreclosed and she finds herself in need of a new home. Shortly afterwards, Sheriff Brown, on his hotshot horse Buck, arrives to tell Pearl that “Patch of Heaven” is set to go on the auction block in three days unless she comes up with a payment of $750.Maggie proposes that the animals could win some Blue Ribbon prize money at the upcoming county fair, and suggests the three cows mosey into town to convince Buck to help them get more time.Mrs. Caloway sees Maggie as an outsider and is reluctant to leave Pearl, but ultimately agrees to go along with the plan.
In town, Maggie, Mrs. Caloway and Grace learn about a $750 reward being offered for a notorious cattle rustler named Alameda Slim. They decide to pursue the desperado themselves and collect the reward money in order to save the farm. Buck refuses to help the girls, and sets his sights instead on assisting his hero, a mysterious champion bounty hunter named Rico. When Rico chooses Buck to be his horse, the ambitious horse champs at the bit to ride into action.
Meanwhile, the three cows attempt to find Slim by hitching up to a chuck wagon that is headed to a cattle drive. Their plan pays off, but the wily cattle rustler sends all of the cattle into a hypnotic trance with his trademark yodel before Maggie and the gang can stop him. Luckily, a tone-deaf Grace is unaffected and manages to save her two traveling companions while Slim makes off with the rest of the herd. Rico arrives too late to catch the slippery varmint, and ends up dumping Buck in favor of a more reliable horse.
The cow trio can't seem to catch a break, and getting caught in a turbulent flash flood leaves them wondering, “will the sun ever shine again?” Their luck changes with the arrival of Lucky Jack, a onefooted rabbit who turns out to be a Jack-of-all-trades. When he reveals that his home at Echo Mine has been taken over by a yodeling cattle rustler, the girls set out with a new sense of purpose.
At the mine, Slim outlines his master plan to his knuckle-headed nephews, the Willies, and prepares to sell off his hijacked cows to a shifty cattle broker named Wesley. Maggie, Grace and Mrs. Caloway arrive on the scene and set into motion a daring plan to de-rail Slim. Things seem to be going their way until Rico makes an appearance and reveals a few surprises of his own.
 Slim escapes and heads for the “Patch of Heaven” auction. It is the last parcel of land he needs to complete his real estate kingdom and exact his revenge on the homesteaders who failed to appreciate his genius for yodeling. Buck finally sees Rico's true colors and joins the girls as they make a last ditch effort to save the farm.With the odds firmly against them and time rapidly running out, the stage is set for a final confrontation with Alameda Slim.Origins of the Project
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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