Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Racing Stripes (2005)
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Movie review
From Time Out London
During a particularly slow ten-minute period towards the end of this equine underdog film, the auditorium holding the media screening came alive with the babble and squeak of kids not concentrating. Mostly, however, Du Chau’s anthropomorphic live-actioner lollops along at a respectable pace, even though its predictable storyline has been done a zillion times.Driving home in a storm, single parent and horse-farmer Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood) chances on a zebra in a box in the middle of the road. He takes the bedraggled foal home where his young daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere) goes gooey eyed and pleads with him to keep it. Months later, Stripes has grown into a handsome zebra with an identity crisis. The thoroughbred racehorses on the track next to the farm laugh at him, mocking his gait and un-horseyness. But might Stripes prove them (and every zoologist) wrong when he enters the Kentucky Open with Channing at the reins?
You can see where this is heading, right up to the slo-mo race sequence. Credit to the production team, though, some of whom worked on the ‘Babe’ films. They could have opted for CGI characters but chose the more difficult route of using real animals – albeit with animated lips and eyebrows. Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg and Snoop Dogg provide the voices and trite jokes. Hardly groundbreaking stuff, but this ‘Seabiscuit’ for kids passes the time efficiently enough.
Author: DA
Time Out London Issue 1798: February 2-9 2005
Cast & crew
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Producer: Andrew A Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Edward L McDonnell, Lloyd Phillips
Cast: Hayden Panettiere, F Emmet Walsh, Wendie Malick, Mandy Moore, Michael Clarke Duncan, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Fred Dalton Thompson, Frankie Muniz, Jeff Foxworthy, Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, David Spade, Joe Pantoliano, Steve Harvey, Snoop Dogg, Bruce Greenwood full cast
Rated: PG
Duration: 101 mins
UK Release: Feb 4 2005
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing






What do you think?
Post your review now