Racing Stripes | CAN A ZEBRA WIN A HORSE RACE? CAN AN AUDIENCE CARE LESS? Hayden Panettiere's pretty pony
Image credit: Blid Alsbirk
CAN A ZEBRA WIN A HORSE RACE? CAN AN AUDIENCE CARE LESS? Hayden Panettiere's pretty pony
Movie Review

Racing Stripes (2005)

EW's GRADE
C

Details Release Date: Jan 14, 2005; Rated: PG; Length: 97 Minutes; With: Bruce Greenwood, Frankie Muniz and Hayden Panettiere; Distributor: Warner Bros.

For the jaded adult, there's something casually terrifying about Racing Stripes. The kids in my theater were unfazed, cheering on plucky zebra Stripes (sullenly voiced by Frankie Muniz) as he overcomes thoroughbred prejudice to compete in the ''Kentucky Open.'' Yup, it's a ''race'' picture — but there are good reasons why zebras and horses don't mix on the track (unbridgeable size and speed differentials come to mind), and no amount of CGI can disguise them. So what disturbed me? Was it the manic poo humor? The dead-eyed charmlessness of the creatures (voiced by Snoop Dogg and, it seems, whoever wasn't busy with a relaunch of Celebrity Mole)? The gratingly referential sub-Shrek script? No, it was the Shetland pony, which sports both Dustin Hoffman's pipes and his I Heart Huckabees toupee, and will haunt my nightmares forever.

Originally posted Jan 12, 2005 Published in issue #802 Jan 21, 2005 Order article reprints

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