Home On The Range's big problem imo is that it's too long. Everything about it is kind of perfectly poised for a short film about half length, something along the lines of Prince and the Pauper: punchy but not too complex characters, a simple and silly adventure without too many twists or turns, and a handful of really expressive sequences to pace it all out.
But I dunno, it's almost like because it had to be feature length they had to streeeeeeetch the whole thing out, even though the characters and the plot don't really seem built for it and those cool sequences are no longer able to pace things, and the end result speaks for itself.
It's not great, but imo it's far from as bad as Chicken Little, at any rate.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 12th 2025 at 11:32:27 AM
Am curious of how it's original story would've gone, where it was called "Sweating Bullets" that just only involved a calf dealing with ghostly wranglers who would've gone after his herd.
G.W.S.- Mainstream audience: "Bambi's just some saccharine little deer who lost his mother."
- Disney fans: "LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, BROTHER!!!!....."
Seriously, I hope the remake at least gets that part accurate.
Edited by Psi001 on Oct 30th 2025 at 9:03:43 AM
I actually like Chicken Little, I never understood the hate for it.
Home On The Range is awful though. And Dinosaur is just boring.
"COCONUTS HAVE WATER IN THEM!"
Part of that perception of Bambi probably stems from the fact that most people don't remember (or, given that there's probably more than a few who turned it off after that scene are unaware of) the second half, where he's an adult who fights off a rival for Faline and escapes hunting dogs and a forest fire.
It doesn't help that marketing and merchandise for the movie always depicts Bambi as a fawn.
"COCONUTS HAVE WATER IN THEM!"I think that might be an interesting thing- people mostly remember Bambi as a fawn, so Disney focuses on that for marketing and merchandise, which means people who haven't seen the film only recognize him as a fawn...
x4 I also like Chicken Little... though I've come to understand why plenty of people don't. It's just that those things don't really bother me personally.
Home on the Range is genuinely awful except for the villains.
Disney100 Marathon | DreamWorks MarathonThink we were limiting it to the Disney Animation Studios stuff.
Personally, I remember almost nothing of Dinosaur, or Home on the Range (although that one might be partially because westerns aren't really my thing in general).
I think part of why Chicken Little gets so much hate is because people on the Internet hate seeing anything that resembles mistreatment, ESPECIALLY from parents (see how many people complain about Home Alone and Rudolph, for instance).
It doesn't matter that the film makes it clear that they aren't perfect, or that they're shown to care in other ways. You don't 100% support your kids from the beginning, you're an irredeemable monster.
My problem with the mean-spiritedness in Chicken Little (2005) is that it's overwhelming. When I watch something like Shrek 1, yeah it's snarky and very parodic of Disney, but there's still heart to it. Shrek feels like a rejected outsider, and the movie plays it for drama — making his relationship with Fiona work. Plus, while Shrek is rejected by all, he most certainly can fight back — he is a large, frightening ogre after all.
Chicken Little is just tortured by the town. It doesn't feel funny, he can't exactly fight back, and he has almost no friends. It just feels miserable — and it lacks a well-made emotional core to boot. That's just my take though.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Oct 13th 2025 at 10:49:08 AM
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallI might be the odd one out, but mean-spiritedness never bothered me in any piece of media, although that could be because I have a somewhat sadistic sense of humor. To put it in perspective Family Guy is one of my favorite shows.
"COCONUTS HAVE WATER IN THEM!"For me, it’s how it’s used. It’s kind of hard to describe, but like, I love It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for example, and that show is very mean spirited. But in that case, the characters who engage in this behavior are often unsuccessful, and the joke is usually on them.
I think it’s just if it’s used too much for me, to the point where it’s distracting. I don’t know, I just woke up and I’m not describing this well.
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallThe problem with Chicken Little is it kind of doesn't do enough to solve how the characters for the most part are jerks. Even one of the heroes ends up romancing a brainwashed person which is outright rapey.
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.The simple solution is to watch a better movie.
As long as this flower is in my heart. My Strength will flow without end.in my opinion if your most common joke is characters are jerks to character to the designated "loser", you just may be a terrible writer.
@fragglelover I kinda love how the midquel clearly had to roll with that marketing tactic and made the whole story about fawn Bambi and him coming to terms with losing his mother.....and STILL snuck in the dark elements of the original and had a big climax which is basically a mini version of all the stuff he does as an adult. There's no excuse now because BOTH versions of Bambi are badass.
As for Chicken Little, I think it might be more that it's mean spirited but still kinda tries to have its cake and eat it too, they make Buck Cluck and the other civilians exagerratively unlikeable but still go for the heartwarming payoff in the end which doesn't feel earned when you've made everyone so cartoonishly appalling rather than just forgivably flawed.
I think that's the problem some low key have with A Bug's Life as well, only the ants don't even have the benefit of being Played for Laughs.
Really I think Disney trying to do mean spirited schaudenfreude type comedy has always been a bit of a weak spot for them. There's a reason the Donald or Chip and Dale shorts from their classic era are some of the more divisive ones, it's them trying to do more cynical Troll type humour of their competitors, but not quite getting how they pulled it off. I think a lot of mean spirited humour tends to fall flat when writers think its the ends rather than the means for a gag.
Edited by Psi001 on Oct 13th 2025 at 2:54:47 AM
Darkwing Duck, for instance, had a lot of mean humor in how the city treated Darkwing like crap despite all he did for them, and characters like Tank or Sarah Bellum, but it all was balanced with genuine heart and when an emotional payoff happened it felt earned.
It didn't go overboard.
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.![]()
Really good point about Disney and this type of humor. I think Looney Tunes pulled it off because of its brilliant writing and fourth wall-breaking meta jokes, which Disney never quite got. In the case of Chicken Little, there was also blatant DreamWorks influence — without what made their movies work. Hence my Shrek comparison.
Looney Tunes got away with that humor because most characters got as much as they dealt. You rarely felt a character was outright bullying another one, there was a karmic feeling more often than not. Notably that's something they realized when they felt Elmer was feeling too nice to get punishment from Bugs so they brought in the more deserving Yosemite.
In contrast with Donald it just felt like most stories were bullying him.
Edited by TomWithoutJerry on Oct 13th 2025 at 7:12:51 AM
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.It felt like that sort of humour was taking over in 2000s due to adult animation being much more of a thing by then. Even milder cases in the same genre like The Simpsons were trying to emulate Family Guy more by following that mix of super zany 'everyone's an asshole' type of direction. Earnest storytelling wasn't popular at the time.
I think that's why Disney struggled, because they either tried to hard to go with the times and make meaner Denser and Wackier projects or struggle to stay relevent with their traditional stuff.
90s had that sort of 'edge' as well of course (see Disney's attempts with Snookums and Meat or what ALMOST became of Toy Story) but by 2000s it seemed a bit like a lot of mainstream storytelling was simplifying to 'audiences like horrible people' mindset.
There were some odd gems however. The Emperor's New Groove is considered a better attempt at that sort of thing without going overboard. It's also arguably why the Disneytoons entries were considered better in this era, since not only had they amped up production values to almost look like their main films, but they were a remaining breath of traditional good natured Disney (though they did sometimes suffer the same issue, Mulan 2 is definitely going for the nastier zanier direction).
I feel like Disney especially liked trying to follow the Tom and Jerry formula as they went on, with the Disney mainstays being tormented by these small troublemaking critters. However while Tom and Jerry (usually) ran fully on Laser-Guided Karma and weren't afraid to punish Jerry instead to show non-discriminate Grey-and-Grey Morality, Disney ran fully on 'the smaller cuter character ALWAYS wins' whether they deserved to or not. I'd argue Chip and Dale in fact was one of the better moderated cases since their shorts were still usually Escalating Wars where they took as much as they got, even if they still usually got the last laugh.
Edited by Psi001 on Oct 13th 2025 at 4:18:23 AM
A good chunk of Donald's humor comes from his temper (which means that stuff has to happen to get him to that point)
True, though it's another one of those things where execution is the key.
Just like Bugs trolling people is more enjoyable when they bother to set up that his victim stupidly provoked him and made his mischief karmic, Donald erupting into tantrums over his misfortune is more fun when you know it's largely over something he brought on himself rather than the world just angering him for a cruel laugh. Then you want DONALD to get revenge instead.
Edited by Psi001 on Oct 13th 2025 at 4:21:30 AM
Huge fan of The Simpsons here, that show also worked because they had genuinely heartfelt episodes too. Mother Simpson, Lisa’s First Word, the one with the “Do It For Her” scene, etc.
By contrast Family Guy is just cruel a lot of the time. Actually it got worse in later seasons, there were funny bits in the early seasons like the Hummer Guy bit, the Jafar May Need Glasses bit, the FCC episode, the episode where Peter’s house becomes a micronation, the mayoral debate where Lois just says 9/11 and keeps getting applause, etc. The new seasons have no soul.
I’d like to say it paved the way for more interesting and better made adult animation like Rick and Morty, BoJack Horseman, Smiling Friends, Common Side Effects, etc. but even in the 2000s they had stuff like The Boondocks and Moral Orel so it was never totally a pit. Even South Park was known for its brilliant sociopolitical satire, and they even did episodes that were genuinely well-made and understanding (the Tourette’s one, from what I’ve heard, the Mormon one, etc.)
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Oct 13th 2025 at 7:39:16 AM
Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

I have seen TRON: Ares and it looks like Sark is getting an extra life.
Edited by Mister-Toon97 on Oct 12th 2025 at 9:27:47 AM