Racing Stripes

Plot

During a thunderstorm, a traveling circus, Circus Sarano, accidentally leaves behind a baby zebra (Jansen Panettiere) after replacing a flat tire with a spare on one of the trucks. The foal is rescued by widower and former racehorse trainer, Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood), and is taken to his farm where his daughter, Channing (Hayden Panettiere) appears excited and names him Stripes. There, he also meets a Shetland pony named Tucker (Dustin Hoffman), a goat named Franny (Whoopi Goldberg), and a rooster named Reggie (Jeff Foxworthy). The next day, he becomes convinced that he is destined for the nearby racetrack, the Kentucky Open, after watching a race, not realizing that he is a zebra and is not qualified to race. On the other side of the fence, Stripes meets a pair of foals named Trenton's Pride (Kyle Alcazar) and Ruffshodd (Frankie Ryan Manriquez), who decide to race him until they are stopped by Pride's father, Kentucky Open champion, Sir Trenton (Fred Dalton Thompson).

Three years later, after racing the mailman, an adult Stripes (Frankie Muniz) meets an Arabian filly named Sandy (Mandy Moore) and develops a crush on her after losing to the mailman in their usual race. While talking to Sandy, he is approached by Pride (Joshua Jackson) and Ruffshodd (Michael Rosenbaum), Stripes' tormentors since childhood. Pride challenges Stripes to a racing match on a Blue Moon night; he accepts, but loses the race. The following day, Tucker, having secretly watched Stripes, approaches him and suggests that he gets proper training first. Stripes, in need of a rider, chooses Chan and convinces a new farm animal, a pelican named Goose (Joe Pantoliano), to sabotage Chan's motorcycle and Old Blue, Nolan's old pickup truck, so that Chan can ride him to her workplace at the Kentucky Open. The plan works, and Chan, with Nolan's reluctant approval, rides Stripes to the Kentucky Open. There, Chan is antagonized by her boss, Clara Dalrymple (Wendie Malick), for bringing Stripes to the racetrack, while Stripes meets a pair of horsefly brothers, Buzz and Scuzz (Steve Harvey and David Spade).

As night approaches, Chan, remembering her first ride on horseback with her mother, completes a lap around the racetrack with Stripes. They are approached by Woodzie (M. Emmet Walsh), a racetrack gambler and old friend of the family, who encourages Chan to sign her and Stripes up for a tryout race tomorrow. She does, despite Nolan's disapproval especially, since the death of his wife in a horrible racing accident six years ago, which discouraged him to continue training horses after that, but Stripes has a major meltdown after being easily scared by the horse-gate like all the other horses the next morning at the tryouts. Once he calms down, he begins running, but then gets hit in the face by flying dirt while racing, causing Chan to fall off. Though she is uninjured, Nolan chastises her. Then, Dalrymple sarcastically signs Stripes up to compete in the Kentucky Open competition. Meanwhile, Stripes realizes he is a zebra after being told off by Sir Trenton, which severely discourages him. Despite Chan's pleas, Nolan refuses to let her race with Stripes. Realizing this, the farm animals lure Nolan into the farm to show him a table holding his past accomplishments and he changes his mind. Meanwhile, due to Stripes' misbehavior during training, Franny reveals to Stripes that Tucker helped Nolan train the racehorse champions including Sir Trenton without getting any thanks, which encourages him to begin training.

Refusing to allow Stripes to race, Sir Trenton and several Thoroughbreds ambush Stripes and Sandy at a creek as they are talking and making up for their previous argument one night, kidnapping Sandy and threatening to hurt her if he races. The next day, after rescuing Stripes, Tucker, Franny, and Goose agree to rescue Sandy. They do it (with a little help from Buzz and Scuzz) and get back in time for Stripes to go to the race. Before the race, after getting insulted by Dalrymple again, Nolan makes a bet that if he wins then he gets Sandy and if he loses then he will come back to work for her. During the race, Ruffshodd tries to stop Stripes from winning until Scuzz manages to bite him on the rear and get him disqualified. Later, Stripes begins to wear out until he finally remembers something Tucker taught him, which boosts up his confidence to continue racing at a faster pace. Stripes wins the race, and finally gets respected by the other race horses, including Pride. In the end, they all pose together in a group photo which is later shown with the other previous Walsh wins.

Animals and Humans

Additional voices

Production

On September 10, 2002, it was announced that Frederik Du Chau was hired and set to direct Racing Stripes. David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner and Kirk DeMicco wrote the script for the film. Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Lloyd Phillips and Edward L. McDonnell produced the film with the budget of $30 million for release in 2005. On 22 November, it was announced that Bruce Greenwood, Hayden Panettiere, M. Emmet Walsh, Wendie Malick, Gary Bullock, Frankie Muniz, Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Mandy Moore, Jeff Foxworthy, Joe Pantoliano, Fred Dalton Thompson, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Snoop Dogg, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Harvey and David Spade joined the film. On March 25, 2003, it was announced that Mark Isham would compose the music for the film. Development of the film was completed in Los Angeles, California. On 21 May, Summit Entertainment and Warner Bros. acquired distribution rights to the film.

Plot details and coincidences

Racing Stripes has many plot similarities to the later-released Disney movie, Herbie: Fully Loaded. In fact, an Image Search for "Racing Stripes" on Yahoo revealed pictures of Herbie (due to his design) much sooner than it did any pictures pertaining to Racing Stripes. According to Ripley's Believe It or Not, at least one person has succeeded in training and riding a zebra as a racehorse. In the movie, Shetland pony Tucker says he has "shorter legs than a sheepdog", which is probably a reference to the Shetland sheepdog and also mentions a "Chicken Run" in a conversation with young Stripes on his first day on the Walsh farm. Scuzz once calls himself "Luke Scuzzwalker", a reference to the Star Wars character, Luke Skywalker. Goose's remark towards Tucker ("Hey, be careful, Pony-Boy, or someday someone's gonna wake up with your head in their bed!") contains references to The Outsiders and The Godfather and his remark to Dalrymple ("Say hello to my little friend.") is a reference to Scarface. Reggie states: "If you build it, they will come." is a reference to Field of Dreams after Nolan plows the race track in the corn field and yells out: "Good Morning, Walsh farm" in Robin Williams' style at the beginning of a day in reference to Good Morning, Vietnam.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by Mark Isham, who also produced and co-wrote "Taking the Inside Rail" with Sting; "It Ain't Over Yet," heard with Channing and Nolan train Stripes and at the end of the film, was written by Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters and Eliot Kennedy and produced by Adams. The soundtrack album was released on January 11, 2005 on the Varese Sarabande label.

1. Taking the Inside Rail - Sting
2. It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
3. At Home on Walsh Farm
4. I'm a Racehorse!
5. The Blue Moon Races
6. A Pelican Named Goose
7. Tucker Lays It Out!
8. Goose Makes a Hit on the Iron Horse
9. Run Like the Wind
10. Twilight Run
11. Upstaged by a Zebra
12. A Brave Decision
13. Glory Days
14. If You Build It, They Will Come
15. Out of Africa
16. Spring Training
17. Ambushed!
18. Filly in Distress
19. Race Day
20. They're All In!
21. The Big Race
22. In The Winner's Circle
23. It Ain't Over Yet - Bryan Adams
24. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Ennio Morricone
25. My Girl – Steve Harvey
26. U Can't Touch This – David Spade
27. Here Comes The Hotstepper - David Spade
28. Ebony and Ivory - Steve Harvey and David Spade
29. Overture, from 'Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)' K.492 - Hungarian State Orchestra
30. Exsultate, jubillate, K.165 - Kosice Teachers' Choir/Camerata Cassovia
31. Walk This Way - Run-D.M.C.
32. The National Anthem USA
33. Who Let The Dogs Out? - Steve Harvey and David Spade

Theatrical release

Racing Stripes was theatrically released on January 14, 2005 by Summit Entertainment and Warner Bros..

Home media

Racing Stripes was released on DVD and VHS on May 10, 2005 by Roadshow Entertainment and Warner Home Video.

Box office

The film was a modest success at the box office, having covered its budget. It grossed $49,000,000 at the American box office and an additional $40,000,000 at the international box office.

Critical response

Critical reaction to the film was mixed to negative, with the movie scoring 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 99 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "An entertaining children movie that ought to be tolerable for adults." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Awards