Bodrov's staging and cutting does a perfectly good job conveying their anthropomorphized feelings and motives; the spoken drivel is just a distraction. The film's human characters are largely inconsequential.
50
USA TodayMike Clark
USA TodayMike Clark
It's just too soon after those silly talking dinosaurs to put up with any movie about a talking horse.
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
New York PostLou Lumenick
Suffers from terminal hoof-in-mouth disease.
30
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
The majesty of the landscape and the sweetness of a plot strand about the horse learning survival skills from a 12-year-old girl might have been more intriguing without the cloying voice-over.
Vacillates between cutesy Disney-style anthropomorphism and "Born Free" exoticism.
10
Variety
Variety
A profoundly disappointing attempt to reinvigorate the animal movie genre with the classic ingredients of physical poetry and mythical storytelling.
10
Film.comGemma Files
Film.comGemma Files
If you're looking for something child-appropriate that'll actually keep the little darlings awake for two hours straight, you'd do better...and cheaper...to just stay at home with the Discovery Channel.
10
L.A. WeeklyRon Stringer
L.A. WeeklyRon Stringer
Let horses be horses, scrap the tin-eared Lukas Haas narration.
0
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
This may be the first talking-animal movie in which the critter hero seems to have been body-snatched by a commentator from C-SPAN.