Young Black Stallion (2003)

This 50 minute L.F. narrative is at its best with music, big sky, interesting terrain and a charming girl on the back of a beautiful horse. Sticky in acting/dialogue.

The Young Black Stallion will provide a brief diversion for animal-loving youngsters. But beneath its polished good looks it feels awfully amateurish.

Young Tamimi is a terrific rider but a lackluster screen presence, and the film's brevity ensures that her trials have a perfunctory quality that keeps them from being truly compelling.

A choppy, disjointed film that feels like it was edited down to suit the typical, 45-minute running time of a large-format film.

Every shot seems designed to show off the unique location, or fill the screen with something interesting.

It's a full, flat 50 minutes -- long enough to get the job done, and fast and short enough that the kids won't get antsy. And luckily for us adults, it's well-crafted and keeps us interested, too.

Nowhere near as adventuresome or artful as its famous predecessor, but it's still a vital, good-looking way to introduce the Walter Farley horse books -- and the resulting films -- to children.