This is a pretty good kid movie, and a feel good movie about overcoming long odds. A zebra wants to become a race horse.
There's no reason to delve into the harshness of horse racing, and the real risk of fatal injuries. This is for kids, and it works most of the way.
There are animals who talk. The comedy works very well, with the matching of voices and animals. The humans work well as bad and good characters. The story is told.
The flaws are just way too major to ignore, however. Not just the flaws of racing zebras against horses, but other huge flaws.
The track is supposed to be Turfway Park, but it doesn't even come close to resembling the track. Turfway is too well known and often seen to not make some attempt to show the glass enclosed grandstand and clubhouse-since it is a Winter track most of the time. The scenic large lake in the center is missing. The dirt (actually polytrack) is missing. The buildings are missing. In fact, it resembles more a small country fair.
There are just too many people with Georgia accents in a Kentucky story. Of course horse trainers do tend to emigrate from the South to Kentucky, but the accents are just way too Southern to be believable as Kentucky, except for the heroine.
More of the scenery. Some of it does resemble the back-roads of Midway, where the very wealthy keep the expansive horse farms, and at least one farm near Keeneland does have a zebra some times. Very little of it looks like Kentucky, which is heavily divided in horse country. However, there are a few smaller farms between the grand expensive ones. These people are not impoverished by any means, but not as wealthy as the moguls nearby. Some of the farm settings look real, but these are settings closer to Versailles, Ky. than to Florence.
It is hard to show on camera just how magnificent a zebra looks. No film can do this beautiful creature justice, so I won't fault them for that.
There's no reason to delve into the harshness of horse racing, and the real risk of fatal injuries. This is for kids, and it works most of the way.
There are animals who talk. The comedy works very well, with the matching of voices and animals. The humans work well as bad and good characters. The story is told.
The flaws are just way too major to ignore, however. Not just the flaws of racing zebras against horses, but other huge flaws.
The track is supposed to be Turfway Park, but it doesn't even come close to resembling the track. Turfway is too well known and often seen to not make some attempt to show the glass enclosed grandstand and clubhouse-since it is a Winter track most of the time. The scenic large lake in the center is missing. The dirt (actually polytrack) is missing. The buildings are missing. In fact, it resembles more a small country fair.
There are just too many people with Georgia accents in a Kentucky story. Of course horse trainers do tend to emigrate from the South to Kentucky, but the accents are just way too Southern to be believable as Kentucky, except for the heroine.
More of the scenery. Some of it does resemble the back-roads of Midway, where the very wealthy keep the expansive horse farms, and at least one farm near Keeneland does have a zebra some times. Very little of it looks like Kentucky, which is heavily divided in horse country. However, there are a few smaller farms between the grand expensive ones. These people are not impoverished by any means, but not as wealthy as the moguls nearby. Some of the farm settings look real, but these are settings closer to Versailles, Ky. than to Florence.
It is hard to show on camera just how magnificent a zebra looks. No film can do this beautiful creature justice, so I won't fault them for that.