Racing Stripes (2005) Bruce Greenwood, Hayden Panettiere, M. Emmet Walsh, Wendie Malick, Frankie Muniz, Mandy Moore Movie Review

Racing Stripes (2005)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Hayden Panettiere in Racing Stripes (2005)

Formula Zebra

It was a stormy night when horse farmer Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood - The Life) came across a baby zebra in a crate, having accidentally been left behind by a travelling circus. Taken the defenceless critter home his daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere - Raising Helen) names him Stripes, well Spots wouldn't have worked, and they keep him in the barn. It is in the barn that Stripes meets the eclectic bunch of animals who reside on the farm which is nearby to Turfway Racetrack. Obsessed with racing, Stripes believes if her trains hard enough he can beat any of the horses which he watches race, he just needs a little help from Tucker, a Shetland pony.

To sound like the proverbial broken record; whilst some children's movie will entertain adults at the same time there are those which are simply for younger eyes. "Racing Stripes" is one of those movies which is simply for children as it has little in the way of humour which is aimed at grown ups although some of the gags might make you laugh if you end up watching this with children.

The thing is that there is nothing wrong with that as the daftness in "Racing Stripes" is perfectly fine for young children. From the humour of a zebra wanting to be a race horse to the humorous voice work of a surprising number of famous faces there is plenty of comedy going on. The trouble is that most of the humour is of the obvious, frequently dumb variety which is why it doesn't offer up much for grown ups.

What this all boils down to is that "Racing Stripes" is entertaining enough but only in the sense that it is entertainment for children and doesn't offer much other than some familiar ideas and jokes for any grown up who stumbles across it.


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