Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Hayden Panettierre and featuring the voices of Frankie Muniz, Mandy Moore, Snoop Dogg, Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg
Director: Frederik du Chau
The film: Babe may have been first out of the blocks with a computer-enhanced live action animal feature in 1995, but Racing Stripes carries the baton with some impressive strides.
This film is no mean feat on many counts. Because of the cast of animal characters needed, the production took place in South Africa, where set designers recreated a convincing slice of Kentucky, where the tale takes place. Trainers needed six months with the huge cast of animals. All principal non-humans were played by several similar-looking animals. In the case of the protagonist, that amounted to 12.
In short, the plot concerns a young zebra accidentally left behind by a circus on the side of a road in Kentucky. Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood) finds him and takes him back to his farm, intending to contact the animal welfare authorities. But his daughter, Channing (Hayden Panettiere, right) begs him to let her keep him. Somewhat irresponsibly, dad agrees. When the zebra, which they call Stripes, starts mixing with Walsh's livestock and neighbouring ponies, he becomes obsessed with the idea of a career as a racehorse.
In time-honoured fashion, human characters can't hear the animals' conversations. With a stellar voice-over cast that was allowed to improvise with the script, animal dialogue is often witty. When Stripes (voiced by Frankie Muniz - best known locally as Malcolm in TV sitcom Malcolm in the Middle) starts to take his racing idea seriously, Shetland pony Tucker (Dustin Hoffman) and Franny the goat (Whoopi Goldberg) offer him sage-like advice, in contrast to the madcap reactions of some of the farmyard community. Lightning, possibly the world's laziest dog (Snoop Dogg), pays no attention to much at all, but manages the odd comical comment while conscious.