A “Little Patch of Heaven” is a smiling example of what Disney artists can create when not reigned in. All images © 2004 Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. All rights reserved.

Home on the Range is energetic, colorful and one last hurrah for Disney’s traditional feature animation unit.

Well, for the foreseeable future, anyway.

Though people always find something to complain about, Home on the Range is a good movie. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Its beautiful art direction, fluid animation and playful voice performances all lend themselves to uncomplicated entertainment. The opening scene, with its jaunty title song, hearkens back to an earlier era, not only when spittoons were all the rage, but when cartoons didn’t take themselves too seriously.

For those indignant, pouting few sitting cross-armed in their darkened living rooms, whose heroic stubbornness refuses to patronize the Mouse House, here is a quick, harmless overview of the story:

An outlaw named Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid) has been mysteriously snatching up cattle from the local territory. Meanwhile, a real estate baron named Yancy O’Dell, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Alameda Slim (wink, wink), has been laughing all the way to the bank, and buying up the area’s lands when they are forced to foreclose. One last dairy farm, called Patch of Heaven, is soon to be on the bank’s auction block, unless the kindly owner Pearl (Carole Cook) can come up with $750 to cover the loans. The animal residents of Patch of Heaven set out to rustle up some reward money, and thereby save the farm, in bringing Alameda Slim to justice.

In particular, our heroes are three cows: bold, brash Maggie (Roseanne Barr); priggish, practical Mrs. Caloway (Judi Dench); and holistic, tone-deaf Grace (Jennifer Tilly). Like the Charlie’s Angels of the farm world, they are “bovine bounty hunters” with a lot of heart, if not a lot of luck.

Not to ruin the movie for anyone, but there’s a shaman-like, one-legged jack rabbit thrown into the fray, as well as a buffalo who looks vaguely like the titular Beast in that other “beautiful” movie — back in the days when Oscar nods for animation were largely reserved for a quick snooze during the short film category.

Oh yeah, there is also an endearingly ebullient sheriff’s horse named Buck (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). He is looking to prove his mettle by teaming up with a shadowy vigilante named Rico who is also on the trail of Slim.

This is the part where I’ll leave off with the story, because there’s not much sense in recapitulating the whole darn thing when you can much more enjoy the movie by seeing it. Really, the entire affair is fairly painless fun.