PLOT: A plucky little zebra must rise above various forms of snobbery and cruelty to compete with the racehorses who live next door.
Racing Stripes is more or less Virginia's Run, only with a zebra and farting horseflies.
Starting with that staple of chipper family lore, the dead mother, both films also have an adolescent girl keen to get on horseback, a kind but disapproving dad (riding killed your mom!) and plenty of snobbery and cruelty toward the upstart who dares compete against her betters.
Racing Stripes, however, has the additional element of talking animals. You don't have to be Donald Duck to understand the value of anthropomorphic carry-on, and wait until you witness the stoner horseflies. The flies are voiced by Steve Harvey and David Spade; there's also a goat voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, a dog voiced by Snoop Dogg, a Shetland pony who speaks with Dustin Hoffman's voice, a filly whose neighs are from Mandy Moore and a goose who honks with help from Joe Pantoliano.
(Reminder: People who swear they never inhaled end up in Washington, not Hollywood.)
Racing Stripes begins with a circus, a rainstorm and a baby zebra getting lost in the chaos. Rescued and raised by horse farmer Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood) and his daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere), the dear little zebra (voiced by Frankie Muniz) is nicknamed Stripes.
He grows up next to a spread where race horses roam. He longs to race against those mean-spirited thoroughbreds, but they just laugh at him and put him down.
Stripes "looks" different from the racehorses. He's from the wrong class of equine, has no breeding and even has to be a labourer on the farm. With those credentials, Stripes seems destined to be a pop star, but no. The zealous little zebra still wants to race.
The racehorses dismiss him as an also-ran. When they realize he's as fast as they are, they beat him up. Racing Stripes is a movie that can help prepare your children for a political career.
Scratch that. What we meant to say is that Racing Stripes has the requisite uplifting message about following your heart and going for your dreams and (your cliche here), but it's a cut above the usual barfulous Hallmark fare for kiddies because it has funny talking animals. It's silly. You'll like it.
Your children, more to the point, will love it.
(This film is rated G)
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