Racing Stripes

There's something oddly satisfying about seeing a notoriously disobedient wild animal like a zebra racing alongside horses. For parents of the 4 to 10 year-old children that this talking-animal picture is geared toward that spectacle alone should provide sufficient entertainment value in a guileless kiddie movie. Rural Kentucky is the backdrop against which former horse trainer Nolan Walsh (Bruce Nolan - "Thirteen Days") and his pretty teenaged daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere - "Raising Helen") discover and rescue a baby zebra abandoned by a traveling circus. Once in the comfort of the family farm Stripes the zebra (voiced by Frankie Muniz) strikes up a talky relationship with his farm cohabitants voiced by such audience pleasers as Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Snoop Dogg and Mandy Moore. All the action leads to a big race between Stripes and the giant thoroughbreds at an adjacent racing track. In the old days this would have been a "G" rated movie.
Rated PG 101 mins. (B) (Three Stars)