Black Beauty

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful movie for horse-lovers!
Review: Black Beauty was one of the best movies I've ever seen! Docs Keepin Time was an excellent "actor". There was inhumane treatment of the animals and Ginger was so tragic. The horses had no say in anything and were abused yet they tried to please their masters. With kind masters they flourished and the ending was beautiful. The music was evocative and everything it this movie made me cry. (It was also an excellent book.)

Rating:
Summary: black beauty
Review: This is simply a wonderful movie to watch, perfect family entertainment.
The music throughout is most enjoyable, along with the wonderful scenery. The storyline offers a touching look at the life of a horse, both the good times he enjoys and the bad things he endures. It is easy to empathize with the main equine character, and the good human characters he comes into contact with steadfastly believe in kind treatment of horses and vocalize it several times throughout the film, without being preachy. Some scenes are downright comical, adding some humor and fun.
Being a horse person, I was constantly amazed at the training that was involved in producing this film! It left me wondering for days how some scenes were shot, and how much effort went into the training of the equine actors. This is the kind of film that I could watch again and again.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful movie for anyone
Review: A heartwarming tale for both adult and children. Horse lovers will adore this movie, i find it one of those movies where you have to watch it often and often just to admire black beauty himself as well as what friends he meets along the way. A well mannered stallion raised well upon his first farm and his second farm, where he meets his mate Ginger and his best friend Merrylegs, had been sold .. and from that point on did everything go downhill for poor Beauty. Although at the very end of the movie everything summed up for a happy ending.

In my opinion, i say that this movie is for every horse-loving child and adult. It allows you to see what the horse sees itself through both cruelity and love of mankind. the characters are well put together ..

the only thing i see wrong with this is that none of the other horses besides Beauty were given voices. only actions to express themselves.

Rating:
Summary: black beauty
Review: this is really a heart filled movie, full of traggedy,hardship,
loss of a horse for a young girl who is intent on searching for herlost frient beauty. once found the two are never to be seperated again. this is a wounderful movie to watch with your
children they gain so much from the past from watching this victorian aera emerge onto the screen.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most faithful Black Beauty movies
Review: Considered to be the truest filmed version of Anna Sewell's timeless book,1994's Black Beauty follows the unstable life of an intelligent ebony stallion (played by Doc's Keepin Time) in Victorian England. As he does in the novel, Beauty narrates the tale (he's voiced by Alan Cumming) from his idyllic birth, through the tragic events that led to him having to be sold, and how his happiness was completely at the mercy of those who held his reins. Masters both kind and cruel shape the horse's rather Dickensian life, as do his closest equine companions: A mare called Duchess and a self-willed pony named Merrylegs. Very nicely filmed and well-acted.

Staci Layne Wilson
Author of Staci's Guide to Animal Movies


Rating:
Summary: Splendid In Every Way
Review: A simply perfect story told with exquisite compassion
and artistry.

This version of BLACK BEAUTY should be considered the
unsurpassable classic of its genre - as well as one of the
truly memorable films of the '90s - if only for these few
reasons:
Danny Elfman's soulful score.
Alex Thomson's gorgeous cinematography.
A perfectly balanced ensemble of actors, all of whom
add great heart to the story.
All-around production design of wonderful taste and period
versimilitude.

Most of all, director Caroline Thompson's obvious love
and dedication. She has made of this simple story of the
life of a horse a movie that puts to shame all but a slim
few involving people about whom we are expected to care
and empathize with.

This interpretation of Black Beauty is touching and...beautiful.

Rating:
Summary: Good-worth watching
Review: the movie of this famous novel is Actually very well done. It stays fairly true to the novel, and those things that have been changed are changes for the better and don't ruin the storyline. There is some beautiful scenery in here, and the movie is very touching, it makes you laugh, smile and cry as you watch beauty go through his life from a playful foal to a handsome horse. then ending is REALLY good, and the acting is done well, by both horses and people. Allough Beauty narrates through the movie, the other horses don't talk, some people don't like this, but the movie is about beauty and it would become to confusing if they all talked. Some small characters have been left out but I doubt you will notice this. Some scenes have also been left out but this does not make any differences to the movie. I would recommend it for anyone who loves horses-even those who don't and the movie is suitable for both children and adults.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty is as beauty does
Review: I like to watch the video of Black Beauty with my children because it is such a wonderful tribute to such a beautiful animal. The story is told straight from the horse's mouth.

The beginning scene is the birth of Black Beauty. This is an exciting time and is presented nicely. We see the horse get helped up by its mother and cleaned off. This is very natural and educational for my son to observe this. He says look at the baby beauty!

The horse spends its first year someplace else and when returns it is time to be sold. He arrives at Berkwood Park the residence of Squire Gordon. The Squire and his wife greet the horse and their staff member Jon. This is when the couple decide on the name Black Beauty and where it is said that, "beauty is as beauty does".

Black Beauty is brought to the stables to meet the new horses. Merrylegs is the pony the children of the house play with and ride on. Ginger is, according to Beauty, ill tempered. The two horses immediately start inspecting each other and it is quite nice to see this getting to know you for animals.

The viewer watches Black Beauty with various families through his lifetime. There are sad times when the Horses part and then when one of them dies.


What a wonderful movie to watch as a family. For animal lovers and those that might have children who show an interest in horses. For those who have children under age four, you may want to watch once when the children are asleep to preview. This way you will see just where the birth of Black Beauty is, the fire scene and the part where the horses reins are made tighter.


Rating:
Summary: Oats. Wonderful Oats.
Review: For those of you who have not read the story, basically we follow the life of a black stallion named "Black Beauty" and "Blackjack" when he has his name changed near the center of the film. We watch as Black Beauty goes through all the emotions and feelings of a human through his life. He learns of love from his mother at birth, and later through another horse named Ginger. He learns of friendship through his first family, through a boy named Joe, and even through a archaic taxi driver. Through the course of an hour and a half, we see the highs and lows of life through the eyes of this beautiful stallion.

I feel that the initial response that I will get from this review is that if I do give it a poor review, it means that I agree with the cruel treatment of animals. First of all that is not the case. I am a vegetarian, not that it has anything to do with animals, but it is fun to say. There is something I need to get off my chest about this film. For an hour and a half I sat and watched the cruel treatment of this fine horse by humans. I watched as the director attempted to show that humans are capable of both love and hate. A theme used in almost every film today. My biggest gripe about this film is not with the film itself, but with what was happening behind the camera. During the course of the film, you could not help but wonder how the trainers were getting these horses to move, act, and react on cue. I am almost one hundred percent certain that these horses did not have their own trailers, that they did not have an acting coach, and most importantly that there was a scene rehearsal. I am certain that these animals were thrown right in front of the camera as their trainers did everything possible to make sure that they did everything they were supposed to.

For all of those reviews I have read about how this film shows a much needed side of humanity and their cruelty of animals, I think this film is a double standard. It teaches/shows the cruelty of animals, yet we do not see behind the camera. I am not a betting man, but if I was I would have to say that perhaps what the camera didn't show was madness, mayhem, and cruelty. I could see it in the extra's eyes that they were not treated fairly (the extras were cows ... you can tell a lot about a cow through the eyes). Do animals get the same treatment as actors? Is there a union for these horses, or do they have representation? If the answer is "no" to both of these, then I am going to have to say that we DEFINITELY need to look behind the camera and see the true cruelty that is happening to these beasts.

Also, why was is this film considered an independent film? I am going out on a limb here by saying that they only reason is due to Alan Cumming. I think that his early work is considered "independent", so they added it to this book

To sum up quickly, this film was horrible. Not only was my mind constantly questioning the treatment when the cameras went off, but I felt the story was too coincidence. I know it is very Hollywood to have these coincidences, but too many of them make an unbelievable story. To believe that this horse, of all the horses in the world, came full circle to happiness really made me question the sanity of the director. The words coming from the horse were to the utmost cheese factor. The line that sticks so heavily in my mind is hearing Alan Cumming (in character of Black Beauty) say, "Oats. Wonderful oats." I was hoping to die a happy man without those words passing through my mind. But oh well, who would have thought it.

Overall, this is a children's story and film, so maybe I needed more children to fully enjoy it. Black Beauty was not the film that I was hoping for, nor will I ever rest until my animal friends have proper film representation. I think I am going to call the law offices of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe. I think they are the only ones that can help...

Grade: * out of *****

Rating:
Summary: WELL DONE INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK
Review: I just rented this one yesterday for our children. We finished reading the book just last week and I took a chance on the video that recently came out. This was done quite well and pretty much sticks with the book's story. The music is great and the first thing our yougest said, before the movie got started was, "This is nice music!" Needless to say, both of our children enjoyed it and so did my wife and I. The cinematogrphy and the music were excellent. The story faithful to the book and the overall job was well done. It's not too long, just under an hour and a half and that makes it easy to keep the kids attention. We will be shopping for the DVD.