Children’s film earns its ‘stripes’ with good message

Racing Stripes (2005)
Warner Brothers presents a Frederik Du Chau film, starring the voices of Frankie Muniz, Mandy Moore and Dustin Hoffman. Written by David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk De Micco and Du Chau. 94m. PG for mild crude humor and some language.

2 stars

We’ve always suspected that animals converse in a verbal language wholly unfamilar to the average human being. What we didn’t know is that pet goat Fanny sounds an awful lot like Whoopi Goldberg.

In “Racing Stripes,” the Walsh family has a whole barnyard of animals equipped with voices of people you’d hardly expect to be standing in a same room together. There’s Dustin Hoffman as a minature horse dubbed Tucker, Jeff Foxworthy as a rooster named Reggie and Snoop Dogg as, well, a dog.

And I suppose that’s the true fun of movies like this is to think, even under such curious circumstances, that Frankie Muniz (the voice of our protagonist) was rubbing shoulders in the sound booth with Joe Pantoliano (who voices Goose, a pelican in too deep with the Mafia). Because like a lot of children’s fare, “Racing Stripes” contains a lot of straightforward plot elements whose conclusion you could have gleaned from a careful study of its 90-second trailer. So that’s no fun.

Instead, an indicator of a well-done children’s movie these days is its respect for the adult audience and the strength and value of its message. This movie bears strong similarities in both categories to the Dreamwork’s animated film, “Shark Tale,” released last October. Both film rely strongly on dropping lines from famous Mob movies as their primary source of adult humor. Similarly, both preach messages of tolerance for differences of lifestyle.

In “Racing Stipes,” the tale is of a zebra raised on a Kentucky farm who believes he’s a racehorse. While little Stripes (Muniz) is tended for by the barnyard animals, there’s no love lost on the other side of the fence.

There the righteous Sir Trenton (voice of Fred Dalton Thompson) tells Stripes in no uncertain terms: “And you, you have your place.” Instead of discouraging the rambunctious three-year-old, it inspires him to challenge Trenton’s offspring, Trenton’s Pride (voice of a Joshua Jackson) to a backwoods horserace. Remember that scene in “Biker Boyz” when cyclists congregate on two sides to make the track’s outline for a high-speed duel? Yeah, this time it’s with horses.

After his first taste of true competition, Stripes is ready for more. And although the Walsh farm just happens to border Churchill Downs (err, Turfway Park), it takes conceited millionaire Clara Dalrymple’s (Wendie Malick) sniveling to aggravate farm owner Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood) enough to enter Stripes in the derby.

While the movie’s humor dips into the crude while employing its comic relief, “Racing Stripes” is recommendable for children of pretty much all ages. The movie makes the most of its setting to toss mild-mannered insults such as “Why don’t you guys go choke on an apple?” The movie can be plodding at times, but hopefully the little ones will absorb its message: It doesn’t matter what’s on the outside, when you have what a good spirit on the inside.