Racing Stripes

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This article is about the movie. For the design element used on racecars, see racing stripe.
Racing Stripes

Movie poster for Racing Stripes
Directed by Frederik Du Chau
Produced by Broderick Johnson
Written by David Schmidt
Steven P. Wegner
Starring Frankie Muniz
Hayden Panettiere
Bruce Greenwood
Music by Bryan Adams
Ennio Morricone
Mark Isham
Cinematography David Eggby
Editing by Tom Finan
Distributed by Warner Bros.(USA/International) Paramount Pictures (UK)
Release dates January 14, 2005
Running time 102 min
Language English
Budget $30,000,000
Box office $90,752,852

Racing Stripes is a 2005 American family film directed by Frederik Du Chau. It is similar in the style to the 1995 movie Babe, in that the protagonist is a talking animal who lives on a farm and succeeds at an activity not expected of his species. It was filmed in Pietermaritzburg and Nottingham Road, South Africa.

Plot

In a rush to pack up during a thunderstorm, the Circus Sorano (a traveling circus) accidentally leaves behind a baby zebra. The foal is rescued by Nolan Walsh, a former Thoroughbred-racehorse trainer who retired when his wife Carolyn, a jockey, died in a racing accident. Nolan takes the zebra home to his farm and leaves it under the care of his daughter Channing, who names him "Stripes". Stripes befriends the other farmyard animals, including elderly goat Franny, dim-witted rooster Reggie, and grumpy Shetland pony Tucker, who try to educate him about life on the farm, but he becomes convinced that he is destined for the nearby racetrack, the Kentucky Open, not realizing that he is a zebra and is not qualified to race. At a fence next to the racetrack, Stripes meets two horse foals training to race; Trenton's Pride and Ruffshodd. At first, they have fun playing with Stripes but out of the stables, Trenton's Pride's father, Sir Trenton, a racehorse champion, isn't pleased to see his son and friend playing with a zebra; stating that "if he's going to be a champion, he should start acting like one". Three years later, Stripes performs his daily race with a mailman, but loses after becoming distracted by a friendly jumper horse named Sandy, whom he develops a crush on. While talking to Sandy, he is approached by Trenton's Pride and Ruffshodd, a pair of fully grown and trained Thoroughbreds who bully Stripes; the former challenges Stripes to a racing match at the Blue Moon Races, a Thoroughbred gathering. Stripes accepts the challenge, but he loses the race after he doesn't slow down on a slippery turn and embarrasses himself in front of the other Thoroughbreds.

The following day, Tucker, having secretly watched Stripes at the Blue Moon Races, approaches him and suggests that he get proper training first before trying to race; starting with a pulling plough for example. Stripes, in need of a rider, chooses Channing and enlists the help of new farm animal, a pelican named Goose, to sabotage Channing's motorcycle and Nolan's old pickup truck so then Channing can ride him to her workplace at the Kentucky Open as a last resort. Goose succeeds, comically sustaining injuries in the process. The plan works, and Channing, with Nolan's reluctant approval, rides Stripes to the Kentucky Open. There, Channing is antagonized by her boss, Clara Dalrymple, for bringing Stripes to the racetrack, while Stripes meets a pair of horsefly brothers, Buzz and Scuzz. As night approaches, Channing, remembering her first ride on horseback with her mother, instinctively completes a lap around the racetrack with Stripes. They are approached by Woodzie, an elderly racetrack gambler and friend of the Walsh family, who encourages Channing to sign her and Stripes up for a tryout race tomorrow. She does, despite Nolan's disapproval, but Stripes becomes scared by the horse-gate, and then gets hit in the face by flying dirt while racing, causing Channing to fall off. Though she is uninjured, Nolan chastises her, but gets into an argument with Dalrymple when she bullies Channing. In retaliation, Dalrymple sarcastically signs Stripes up to compete in the Kentucky Open competition. Meanwhile, Stripes realizes he is a zebra when he is confronted by Sir Trenton; this revelation severely discourages him, leading to an argument with Sandy and his friends and a reluctance to race with Channing.

Despite Channing's pleas, Nolan refuses to let her race with Stripes, even threatening to give Stripes away if she does not cooperate with his orders. Realizing this, the farm animals lure Nolan into the farm and show him a table holding many of his accomplishments as a racehorse trainer, and he changes his mind. Meanwhile, Franny reveals to Stripes, who stills remains reluctant, that Tucker helped Nolan train the racehorses, and that his grumpy nature was caused when none of his pupils ever thanked him in return. This encourages Stripes to begin training with Nolan and Channing seriously after the zebra makes an apology to Tucker. Refusing to allow Stripes to enter into the race, Sir Trenton and several Thoroughbreds (except Pride who wants to win the race fair and square) ambush Stripes and Sandy at a creek while they are making amends at night, kidnapping Sandy and threatening to hurt her if he races. The Thoroughbreds then knock Stripes unconscious. Tucker, Franny, and Goose find him and they agree to rescue Sandy. With Buzz and Scuzz's help, they distract Sir Trenton and rescue Sandy from the stables. They then hurry back to the Walsh farm, where Nolan, Channing, and Woodzie take Stripes and Tucker to the Kentucky Open; Sandy, Franny, Goose, Buzz, Scuzz, and Reggie follow. Goose and the fly brothers are assigned to keep an eye on Stripes during the race while flying. When the race begins, Stripes is unable to keep up with the other racehorses, and furthermore, several other jockeys try to sabotage him; mostly Ruffshodd and his jockey (before Scuzz bites his posterior which causes Ruffshodd to toss his rider and get him disqualified). However, he remembers a piece of advice given to him by Tucker ("Don't look back, leave it all on the track"), which encourages him to catch up with Pride, who is in the lead, and Stripes manages to barely win. Impressed, Pride makes amends with Stripes, while Dalrymple, unsatisfied with Channing and Stripes's victory, becomes embarrassed when Goose shoots bird droppings on her hat in front of the press. As he and Channing are awarded, Stripes approaches Tucker and gives him his award wreath as thanks.

Cast

Humans

  • Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood), Channing's father and a retired racehorse trainer who has not been able to bear training horses. Ever since his wife was killed when her racehorse stumbled. Fearing that Channing will hurt herself if she rides, he refuses to let her anywhere near a saddle.
  • Channing Walsh (Hayden Panettiere), Nolan's daughter who is determined to ride on horseback, and despite her lack of opportunity, she has a natural talent for it.
  • Woodzie (M. Emmet Walsh), an old racetrack gambler and an old friend of the Walsh family. He sympathizes with Channing, especially since he sees the same gift in her that was present in her mother.
  • Clara Dalrymple (Wendie Malick), Nolan's former employer, who admires Aurora and Phillip and only sees the Kentucky Open competition as a means of business and money and is not concerned for the well-being of her horses.
  • John Cooper (Gary Bullock), one of the racehorse trainers for the Kentucky Open. He does not share his boss Dalrymple's views on pushing her horses past their limits, but continues to follow her instructions in order to get his paychecks.
  • Wesley Lazarus played the role of a race day attendant in the movie, making his movie debut.

Animals

  • Stripes (Frankie Muniz), an orphaned zebra who desires to compete in the Kentucky Open race, which leads to bullying from the local racehorses with the sole exception of Sandy, whom he has a crush on. His younger self is voiced by Jansen Panettiere.
  • Tucker (Dustin Hoffman), a Shetland pony who used to help Nolan Walsh train racehorses. He upholds a grumpy personality after years of training horses who never give him any thanks for his help.
  • Franny (Whoopi Goldberg), an elderly goat who constantly encourages Stripes to pursue his dream and gives him many words of advice.
  • Sandy (Mandy Moore), a professional jumper horse. She is the only horse who supports Stripes's dream to become a racehorse. She and Stripes have romantic feelings for each other, which become mutual by the end of the film.
  • Buzz and Scuzz (Steve Harvey and David Spade, respectively), a pair of horsefly brothers who are good friends with Tucker. Buzz is larger and has blue eyes, while Scuzz is scrawnier and has red eyes. The brothers have a notable liking for music: Scuzz is a rap fan, while Buzz favors more conservative music.
  • Reggie (Jeff Foxworthy), the Walsh farm's rooster, who means well, but is not very bright. He serves as the news announcer for the rest of the farm animals.
  • Goose (Joe Pantoliano), an American White Pelican from the big city. He states that he moved to the farm in order to escape several other birds who have placed a hit on him, and that he was a "hit bird". It is presumably his experiences that render him afraid of loud noises.
  • Sir Trenton (Fred Thompson), an arrogant black Thoroughbred horse who sees his son, Trenton's Pride, as having no purpose other than to carry on the Trenton legacy. He also seems to view the Kentucky Open competition as his property, this leads to his own bad nature towards Stripes, who he believes might ruin it.
  • Trenton's Pride (Joshua Jackson), Sir Trenton's son, who is a bully and picks on Stripes every chance he gets. However, by the end of the film, he makes up with Stripes, having become impressed with his racing ability. His younger self is voiced by Kyle Alcazar.
  • Ruffshod (Michael Rosenbaum), Pride's friend and lackey. At first, it seems that he bullies Stripes with Pride merely out of sycophancy for the latter, but in reality, he is a worse bully by far, proving quite eager to help Sir Trenton in threatening Sandy in order to keep Stripes from running in the Kentucky Open. This is further evidenced when he persistently tries to sabotage Stripes during the Kentucky Open competition. His younger self is voiced by Frankie Ryan Manriquez.
  • Lightning (Snoop Dogg), the family's Bloodhound who talks while sleeping all day.

Plot details and coincidences

  • Racing Stripes has many plot similarities to the later-released Disney movie, Herbie: Fully Loaded. In fact an Image Search for "Racing Stripes" on Yahoo revealed pictures of Herbie (due to his design) much sooner than it did any pictures pertaining to Racing Stripes.[citation needed]
  • According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, at least one person has succeeded in training and riding a zebra as a racehorse.
  • In the movie, Tucker says he has "shorter legs than a sheepdog". This is probably a bit of a pun on the fact that he is a Shetland pony, since there is also a Shetland sheepdog.
  • In the alternate ending in the DVD release, it is revealed that Stripes and Sandy eventually had a son. Such a hybrid of zebra and horse is possible; it is called a "zorse", though the animal shown in the film more closely resembles quagga. However, professional horse-trainers claim they are not the easiest animals to get along with[citation needed].
  • Scuzz once calls himself "Luke Scuzzwalker", a reference to the Star Wars character Luke Skywalker.
  • Goose's remark towards Tucker ("Hey, be careful, Pony-Boy, or someday someone's gonna wake up with your head in their bed!") is a reference to The Godfather and his remark to Dalrymple ("Say, Hello to my little friend.") is a reference to Scarface.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released 2005-01-11 on the Varese Sarabande label.

  1. Taking the Inside Rail
  2. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
  3. At Home on Walsh Farm
  4. I'm a Racehorse
  5. Blue Moon Races
  6. Pelican Named Goose
  7. Tucker Lays It Out!
  8. Goose Makes a Hit on the Iron Horse
  9. Run Like the Wind
  10. Twilight Run
  11. Upstaged by a Zebra
  12. Brave Decision
  13. Glory Days
  14. If You Build It, They Will Come
  15. Out of Africa
  16. Spring Training
  17. Ambushed!
  18. Filly in Distress
  19. Race Day
  20. They're All In
  21. The Big Race
  22. In The Winner's Circle
  23. It Ain't Over Yet

Reception

Critical reaction to the film was mixed to negative, with the movie scoring 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience reaction was more positive, scoring at 53%.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Racing Stripes (2005)"

External links

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