DVD Review: Walt Disney's Young Black Stallion

I have been a horse lover for as long as I can remember. In fact, I don't remember a time when I wasn't a horse lover! And now that I am an older adult, I still love horses and anything to do with them.

So with that in mind, I pick up any and every horse movie or book that I find. One movie that I picked up to watch called "Young Black Stallion" really piqued my interest. The movie is based on a book by Steven and Walter Farley and is sort of a prequel to the Black Stallion series of books written by Walter Farley starting back in the 1940's. "Young Black Stallion" also reminded me of the old Black Stallion movies starring Kelly Reno and Mickey Rooney but I wasn't familiar with any of the actors in it. None of the actors were from the original "Black Stallion" movies or even the television series but that was fine as long as it was about horses, so I sat down to watch "Young Black Stallion."

I'm glad I did. I found the movie entertaining and beautiful. No question, the horses are the absolute best part of the movie. They are magnificent as they race along the desert with their manes and tails flying in the wind. I loved all the horses in the movie but especially our main horse character, a young black Arabian stallion.

Unlike the original Black Stallion movies and books which starred a young man, "Young Black Stallion" stars a young female named Neera. She has become separated from her family in the middle of the Arabian Desert and meets a wild black stallion who becomes her friend. With the help of the stallion, Neera gets back to her family home though it is in ruins and all the horses are gone. But when she reaches her home, the black stallion runs away and disappears for a year. During that year, Neera is busy trying to figure out a way to save her family from ruin and she goes looking for the black stallion because she has a plan. She believes that if she can find the stallion and train him to race, that she and the black stallion can save her family from complete and total financial ruin AND re-build the family horse breeding business.

While out riding one day, Neera finds the black stallion in a hidden canyon. Reunited, she and the stallion race across the country and Neera's plans to save her family are set. She enters the black stallion, with herself as the rider, in the big race. The race is dangerous and the other riders are all experienced men who are not above some rough and unethical behavior.

But of course the movie has a happy ending and getting to that ending is such a beautiful journey. The scenery is fabulous which I'm sure has to do with the fat that the movie was actually filmed in the African nation of Namibia.

While the movie was a pleasure for me to watch, it does have some limitations. The movie was made for the IMAX big screen and was meant to be watched on a big IMAX screen so the gorgeous scenery can seem a little overpowering on a regular television set which is how I watched it. The acting in the movie is not always high quality. While I did like the character Neera, sometimes she wasn't as good an actress as she could have been. But I think the biggest problem with the movie is the length! It is entirely too short at only 51 minutes long! If Disney had just developed the storyline a little more, it would have been perfect.

Overall I recommend the "Young Black Stallion" movie for horse lovers of any age. The horses are gorgeous and watching them is a joy. The movie is rated G and the language is clean so it's definitely a family movie suitable for youngsters under 10.

This Disney movie was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on DVD in 2004. UPC: 786936207729.