The Young Black Stallion (2003)

Director:

Simon Wincer

Writers (WGA):

Walter Farley (novel) and
Steven Farley (novel) ...

Release Date:

25 December 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Drama

Tagline:

The greatest story of friendship ever told.

Plot:

A young girl befriends a wild black stallion.

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Friendship | Horse Race | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Richard Romanus	...	Ben Ishak
Biana Tamimi	...	Neera
Patrick Elias	...	Aden
Gérard Rudolf	...	Rhamon
Ali Al Ameri	...	Mansoor
Andries Rossouw	...	Kadir
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Adil Abdelwahab	...	Chief of the village
Eric Grucza	...	Voice of Aden
Ike Ogut	...	Sultan

Also Known As:

Young Black Stallion (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

45 min | UK:99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) | DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

South Korea:All | Iceland:L | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Germany:o.Al. | Singapore:PG | Taiwan:GP | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Namibia

Company:

Kennedy/Marshall Company, The

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Close to the beginning of the movie when the girl falls off the camel and she climbs up the sand dune, the ladder can be seen in the sand and it is obvious she is climbing a ladder rather than getting through the sand.

Movie Connections:

Follows The Black Stallion Returns (1983)

A dull and boring movie

"The Young Black Stallion" is somewhat like "The Horse Whisperer" set in African deserts. Maybe it's kinda ridiculous to compare these two movies, but hey, that's the first thing that came into my head. Well, I find "The Horse Whisperer" a rather better movie than this and, ironically, I don't happen to find "The Horse Whisperer" to be a great movie either.

But, back to "The Young Black Stallion", I feel it is a bland, dull, boring and somewhat uninspiring movie experience. I don't know... it just isn't very involving for me. I was quite bored with it.

Sure, the scenery of Africa is beautiful and its wide-angle shots are amazing. Landscapes and backgrounds are simply dazzling and breathtaking. That's the best thing this movie has to offer. Curiously, it takes place in various settings in Africa, in the years 1946 and 1947.

The story is basically this: Neera (a pretty young girl) befriends with a young black stallion and, with the help of Aden, they both have a race against a hostile group of horse-racers. And the movie focus very much on those horse-racers. I also don't get what's the point of Neera's grandfather talking about the black stallion as if it was an imaginary figure and, even worse, as if it was a demon and calling him Shetan - ????? Not a very interesting story...

None of the actors's performances surprise me in this movie for some reason. Even so, the best here are Biana Tamimi as Neera and Patrick Elyas as Aden.

Surprisingly, this movie is only 45 minutes long, which makes it the shortest full-lenght movie I ever saw. Just when I thought it was in the middle or almost in the middle, it suddenly ended. I was like "Huh?" when it ended.

This film was directed by Simon Wincer, the same guy who directed the memorable "Free Willy" (1993) and the excellent "D.A.R.Y.L." (1985), both very good films.

Ah yes, this is a production from Disney's studios, by the way. Disney was once the king of the animated full-lenght movies and they also used to make very good live-action movies back then. But that was ages ago. Disney is no longer what it used to be. How sad is that...