The latest version of this beloved kid-loves-horse story has everything a film requires to attract an equine-crazy audience of all ages.
Flicka (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:75
Fresh:40
Rotten:35
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: The rebellious protagonist will rally girls and children, but adults may find Flicka saddled with thin characters, over-the-top dialogue, and a plot that wanders into the countryside and never comes back.
Theatrical Release:Oct 20, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $20,949,649
Synopsis: In FLICKA, a contemporary motion picture adaptation of Mary O'Hara's beloved novel My Friend Flicka, 16-year-old Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman) dreams of fulfilling her family legacy by working on... In FLICKA, a contemporary motion picture adaptation of Mary O'Hara's beloved novel My Friend Flicka, 16-year-old Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman) dreams of fulfilling her family legacy by working on her father's ranch in modern-day Wyoming. But Katy's father (Tim McGraw) wants more for her, insisting that Katy go to college. Katy finds a wild mustang, which she names Flicka, and sets out to make her a riding horse. But Flicka and Katy are more alike than she could have imagined. Like Katy, Flicka has a disdain for authority and is not about to give up her freedom without a fight. The principal character in the book and in its two motion picture incarnations was an adolescent boy. But this new version tells the story through the eyes of headstrong Katy McLaughlin. Katy is enrolled in a private school on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming, but her heart is with her sprawling family ranch in the state's remote mountain region. Katy returns home to the ranch, and soon becomes enamored of a wild mustang filly she finds in the mountain woods. She names the long-legged, ebony horse Flicka, or "beautiful young girl," in Swedish. But Katy's rancher father, the equally-willful Rob, sees nothing but trouble coming from the untamed animal and discourages his daughter from keeping her. Nonetheless, conflicted by a need to harness her own wild ways yet stay true to a free spirit within, Katy sets out to break through to Flicka and transform her into a riding horse. Despite her father's disapproval, Katy goes on and forms an unbreakable bond with the wild horse. Her relationship with Flicka becomes a catalyst for change for the entire McLaughlin family, which is at a major crossroads: Katy's dad is considering selling the ailing ranch, brother Howard (RYAN KWANTEN) wants to leave Wyoming for college in Boston, and her mother Nell (MARIA BELLO) is fighting to keep her family from falling apart. Can Katy ultimately tame her beloved Flicka and prove everyone wrong about the wild-hearted mustang? Will Rob find a way to support his daughter yet still keep her safe through this momentous life passage? And can the McLaughlins hold onto the ranch that they've worked so hard to maintain throughout a sea of social and economic change? -- © 20th Century Fox [More]
Starring: Alison Lohman, Maria Bello, Dallas Roberts, Tim McGraw
Starring: Alison Lohman, Maria Bello, Dallas Roberts, Tim McGraw, Ryan Kwanten, Danny Pino, Jeffrey Nordling, Kaylee DeFer, Dey Young
Director: Michael Mayer
Director: Michael Mayer
Screenwriter: Laurence Konner, Mark Rosenthal
Composer: Aaron Zigman
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Release:
Jun 16, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Dual Side
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
- Dolby Digital Surround - French, Spanish
- Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional
- Disc 1/Side A: FLICKA - Full Frame
- Full Frame - 1.33
- Disc 1/Side B: FLICKA - Widescreen
Additional Release Material:
- Alternate Scenes: Deleted Scenes (3)
- Behind the Scenes: Making of Featurette
- Music Video: Tim McGraw - "My Little Girl"
Outtakes:
- 1. Bloopers
- 2. Gag Reel
Trailers:
- 1. Product Trailers - Music Promo
- 2. Previews
Reviews for Flicka
There's plenty of singing and haircutting and pretty landscape and annoying crap to fill in the blanks between confrontations.
As things progress, the magic of the story asserts itself over the audience.
Somewhere between Friday Night Lights and the new family film Flicka, Tim McGraw forgot how to act. That's a big problem for a film that's already hobbling a bit.
This is the kind of movie that many families are looking for, but all too rarely receive.
Alison Lohman is appropriately tousled as the rebellious teen, who identifies with the horse she's struggling to tame, but her performance is alternately shrill and pouty.
[A] lovably corny adaptation of Mary O'Hara's grade-school classic, My Friend Flicka.
This would fit right in with the "follow your heart" school of thought that has been common to, say, Disney films of the past 20 years.
The sentimentality meter redlines in the finale, which mixes elements of Old Yeller and E.T., but much of the movie's tear-jerking is earned honestly.
It's not bad -- pretty people, pretty animals and pretty scenery -- it's only pointless.
J. Michael Muro's gorgeous cinematography spreads the astonishing beauty of rural Wyoming across the Cinemascope screen. ...McGraw gives an appealingly understated performance...
I doubt... that Mayer, who fills the film with many unexpectedly lovely, lyrical moments, would have chosen to set Flicka's wrenching emotional centerpiece to a hideously maudlin, ear-piercing country song.
The movie is inoffensive and forgettable, which is probably what they were going for.
Even I, the most macho movie critic in all of the land, had one manly tear running down my rough, unshaven cheek after this movie...It's the movie you want to see with someone who won't be embarrassed when you cry.
"No one's riding that loco thing!" Well, of course as soon as we hear that line we know someone's going to have to ride it.
Flicka does not seem to be pandering to the dictates of Hollywood formula filmmaking, and everything about it seems structured to evoke that special love which young girls seem to universally feel for the equine species.
A well-made family drama pitched to young adults that's honest, tough and surprisingly engaging.
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