Racing Stripes

Frankie Munitz as a zebra? It sounds so strange, yet so appropriate. As long as he keeps his ugly face off screen, leaving only his annoying voice that is acceptable, right? In fact, a lot of actors who are worthy of better things lend their voices to this simple kids movie. There must have been a Mob contract out for them, as I can't see anything in the script remotely attractive. Normally, The Gator would have walked off a cliff rather than watch something like this, but seeing as how it features the voice of Mandy Moore (love you), he was willing to suffer.

Just so you know, if you've seen Babe, or Animal Farm, there isn't any reason to see this. I'm surprised there haven't been infringement lawsuits threatened. The story is of a zebra, called Stripes, who is abandoned by his circus owners and winds up on the farm of Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood, in a rare non-obvious-villain role), a racehorse owner, who is looked after by his daughter Channing (Hayden Panettiere). Meanwhile, Stripes makes pals with the farmyard animals and grows up to believe he's a racehorse.

The one and only joke is that Stripes doesn't know he's a zebra and thinks he can compete in an impossibly tough race for the revered Kentucky Crown. Gee, do you think he'll win?

I'm sorry, but I just remembered, there are two jokes. Would you believe Snoop Dogg actually plays a dog? Wow! I bet the studio exec who thought that one up deserves a medal.

I'll admit that I nodded off, but that's only because the film went through all the usual cliches and schemes. There is a touch of sentiment and some emotion swilling around, which helps, as I'm a real sucker for that sugary stuff, although if you take your kids they'll only be pissed off that you didn't take them to Meet The Fockers, instead.