Hmm... surprised no one commented sooner.

Racing Stripes suffers from Shark Tale syndrome. The animals are all played by recognizable actors with recognizable voices, but one glaring difference is that Shark Tale was not funny, while the animals of Racing Stripes often induce some hilarity. The main problem here is that they are not even the main plotline of the movie, even though they're the center of attention always.

The movie centers around a girl trying to train a zebra to race with other horses. The main plot is her efforts to train him, while the subplot is that the animals are also training the zebra to better himself. Okay, maybe that should be reversed. Either way, my point is that a LOT of time is spent on silly gags between the horseflies (David Spade and Steve Harvey), a rooster (Jeff Foxworthy), and a pelican named Goose (Joe Pantoliano). And the sad part as that these jokesters are the best part of the entire movie. The other animals are all serious, and are the center of the movie, but all scenes are stolen by the supposed secondary characters that really run with the movie, and have the most airtime in the movie.

The main character, Stripes, is voiced by Frankie Muniz, and I really was hoping he would change his voice because all I hear is Malcolm, not Stripes. The humans of the film are completely one dimensional, and are the typical humans you would see in a kids movie (encouraging dad, hopeful daughter, optimistic old man, villainous woman). It's obviously the animals that steal the movie, but little of the film centers on them plotwise, they just get the screentime for no reason, and despite the laughs some of them get, it's sad that the film can't stick with the main plot more to develop the film.

In the end, I'm not even certain what was done to train the zebra to race like a horse, because so little was about him and so much was on the secondary animals, but he still pulled through and that was a good ending. If only they focused more on Stripes, and a tad less on the horseflies and Goose, this film would have gotten a recommendation. Oh well.

Grade: C

You have to have people watching the movie to get a comment! :razz: :wink:

True, true. I just wish I wasn't the only sap to see this.

Nah, I think one other person saw it. Spiderman2005 or someone.

snowman, I believe. Where is his input?

*bump* for the DVD release...

Going to Netflix it.

A movie that could have been cute but turned out to be one of the worst, if not the worst films of the year.

1/10 (F)

I haven't seen it yet. I am probably going to watch this coming weekend.

I watched this earlier tonight. Terrible, just terrible. The flies provided some comic relief, but that wasn't enough to save this train wreck of a film. And if it wasn't for the cute Hayden Panettiere I would've given this pile of steaming zebra poo an F.

D

I am probably going to watch it tonight. I will post my review after I do.

Hope you enjoy it :wink:

Terrible. The voices weren't funny, David Spade wasn't even trying. I liked Snoop Dogg's one line and the girl was cute, but thats all thats saving this from F. Totally redundant movie.

D-, and thats very generous.

C+


Hmmm, I am surprised by all the harsh comments. I thought it was much better than it actually could have been. Sure, the characters are one-dimensional and naive. Certainly, the plot is cliché-ridden and sappy. But at least the movie is not pretentious about what it wants to be. It is a fine family flick and better than some other of its kind. The voice-work is mostly decent and I actually laughed a couple of times. The flies were pretty annoying, but Joe Pantoliano's Goose was pretty good. The childish jokes and all were a bit too much at times, but I never felt bored and I can imagine that kids would love this flick.

OOoh! it wasnt all that bad
it was a little bit dumb at times, but overall somewhat funny and very enjoyble .....David Spade was the worst thing about the movie

B-/C+