For many it may seem like just another chapter in the political agenda of diversity, where Disney takes the 1979 classic "Black Steed" and remakes it where not only the protagonist is female (Mackenzie Foy from "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms") and even the horse becomes a mare. But this is not the case: it was "Black Corcel" that was inspired by the book by Anna Sewel written in 1887 where the protagonist was a girl. In fact, this production is a remake of the 1994 film of the same name. What does this matter for the film? Nothing, but it's a good piece of knowledge that can sometimes be overlooked by some people. Except for the fact that the plot has already been explored in several versions and series over at least the last 40 years and now there is practically not much variation.
The plot revolves around a wild mare, who finds herself captured and taken away from her family. Full of revolt and indignation, no employee at the stable where she was taken can take her, not even the experienced and kind John (Iain Glen). When John receives news of the sudden deaths of his sister and brother-in-law, he finds himself becoming legal guardian to teenager Jo (Mackenzie Foy). Lost and dealing with sudden grief, she mirrors the mare's feelings, and friendship is born between the girl and the animal, whom she names Beauty. Angry at the world, Jo softens after meeting Beauty, who had also lost her family. In the sunny pastures of the farm, the girl and the horse heal each other, until a fire destroys the stables at Birtwick. Having financial difficulties, John rents Beauty as a show horse to a wealthy family of knights, the Winthrops, for their spoiled pre-teen daughter Georgina (Fern Deacon). Jo despises Georgina's cruelty towards Beauty - the spoiled girl kicks the mare until she burns holes - but Jo still falls in love with Georgina's dreamy older brother, George (Calam Lynch).
Although Winslet is the prominent name on the cast list, "Black Beauty" does not materialize as the story of the horse, but of Jo. Unfortunately, even this character's grief is underwritten as she longs for an elusive teenage romance and a reunion with her beloved mare rather than revisiting her parents' deaths. Avis loses the novel's sincerity by diluting Sewell's animal welfare appeal. In this update, humans are not so villainous. Beauty is not so prominent. And the mustang spirit of the novel turns into an ordinary horse movie. This is a story between unlikely friends that has moved generations for more than a century, while also promoting debates about animal cruelty. Unfortunately, Mickey's studio film fails to create a significant bond between its protagonists and, consequently, with its audience.
As with the source material and its many adaptations since, director Ashley Avis begins "Black Beauty" with the colorful life of a young mare. Kate Winslet lends her voice to our mustang heroine from her humble roots in the American West (in fact, the film was shot in South Africa), through her journey through the hands of several different owners. Some are kind, like John Manly (Iain Glen) and his niece, Jo Green (Mackenzie Foy), who moves in with John after her parents' death. It is during this difficult time for humans that Beauty forms bonds with young Jo. Things are going as well as they could for Beauty after losing her home and her group when circumstances beyond John and Jo's control force her to be sold to other strangers, including a rescuer, a farmer, and some carriage drivers.
Avis's adaptation, which she also wrote and edited, brings "Black Beauty" to contemporary America, out of Victorian England. Here, Black Beauty is both harmed and helped by cellphones and forced to deal with the spoiled young rider, Georgina (Fern Deacon), and her ruthless mother, Mrs. Winthrop (Claire Forlani), who wants her daughter to win trophies in dressage competitions. In an added twist, the character of Jo, originally Joseph Greene in the book, receives much more backstory than any of the horse's other handlers and owners. Although she is absent for a considerable portion of the film, the horse thinks of her constantly, like a great first love that got away. "Black Beauty" also gives Jo a love interest, George (Calam Lynch), the opposite of her mother and sister's treatment of horses. Through Jo's experience, the film gently touches on the issue of class, delicately pointing out the differences between Jo, whose uncle works in a stable, the rich girls who make fun of her, and the Winthrops, who more or less make their own rules because they have their own stables. However, it's a little disconcerting to take on an animal's narrative and hand it over to developing the human characters, but after a while, the film shifts back to Beauty's point of view.
Although much of this "Black Beauty" departs from the original, the spirit of empathy and combating animal cruelty remains intact. Some of the novel's harshest scenes appear here as well, including the dark moment when Beauty realizes that one of her former stablemates, Ginger, has endured a terrible life that comes to a heartless end. The film also makes reference to the uncomfortable standard of beauty imposed on these animals for competitions. Mrs. Winthrop is obsessed with seeing the horse's head held high for dressage, a reference to the Victorian standard that also forced horses' heads into uncomfortable and unnatural positions. The publication of the book helped eliminate the practice from most conventional uses, but as the film shows, the cruelty that keeps a horse working day and night pulling a carriage or being forced into dangerous situations that threaten its well-being still it is as prevalent as it has ever been.
But not everything goes so well in this adaptation. The mare's narration (voice of Kate Winslet) throughout its duration is the way in which the script tries to take the viewer into the animal's soul. The big problem is that this device is used as a lazy narrative crutch for absolutely everything that involves any other character's feelings. If Jo is sad, the mare needs to say "Jo was so sad"; if John becomes concerned, she needs to state this fact. It seems that the actors were hired just to have a face that the viewer can associate names with, because their emotions are not felt, only described by Beauty. It is a script that tells the story, but does not show it, does not illustrate it, making little use of cinematic language. The film sounds like an immense soundtrack - beautiful in fact - by Guillaume Roussel ("Predator Instinct") populated by images, directed by the almost debutant Ashley Avis. The volume of the track is not only very high, but it also seems to guide all the events, in order to be even more predictable than the script already is.
The story is episodic, with Jo and Beauty being separated, and the mare passing through several owners, some good, some cruel, but the proud Beauty always keeps her spirits quietly high, while Jo dreams of meeting Beauty again one day. ("The Call of the Wild" and "War Horse" were both, in their own ways, influenced by this story). Horses don't have the same appeal as dogs, but the story is enjoyable, especially for those who have never come across an adaptation of Anna Sewel's work. And it is with this new audience in mind that Disney makes these commercial moves, especially now with streaming. If, on the one hand, some supporting characters are extremely stereotypical, such as the mother (Claire Forlani) and sister (Fern Deacon) of our protagonist's romantic partner, on the other, we have an honest Mackenzie Foy with her soft voice and angelic face, bringing the feelings of suffering, anger and the transformation that Beauty causes in her life in a captivating way. Iain Glen ("My Cousin Raquel") as Jo's uncle is another who always steals the scenes with his dramatic performance.
Avis' film clearly loves its four-legged protagonists. Through David Procter's cinematography, it recreates the look and feel of one of Disney's nature documentaries in the early moments of Black Beauty's life. It's an idealized golden hour look at a group of horses galloping across fields and in the shadows of mountains. It's no wonder leaving these scenes feels like a real loss. Without humans and their dramas to get in the way, we can just enjoy horses without our hindrances, saddles, bridles, or whips. This makes the audience want to spend more time with Black Beauty than with Jo or any other human character in her path. It's a narrative choice that may work better for some than others and probably won't please the book's devotees. This 2020 version of "Black Beauty" is the most discreet adaptation of Anna Sewell's classic story, but with the necessary brightness to captivate the audience of Disney streaming subscribers about an intense and emotional friendship between a girl and her mustang packed with an immersive and exciting soundtrack.
The plot revolves around a wild mare, who finds herself captured and taken away from her family. Full of revolt and indignation, no employee at the stable where she was taken can take her, not even the experienced and kind John (Iain Glen). When John receives news of the sudden deaths of his sister and brother-in-law, he finds himself becoming legal guardian to teenager Jo (Mackenzie Foy). Lost and dealing with sudden grief, she mirrors the mare's feelings, and friendship is born between the girl and the animal, whom she names Beauty. Angry at the world, Jo softens after meeting Beauty, who had also lost her family. In the sunny pastures of the farm, the girl and the horse heal each other, until a fire destroys the stables at Birtwick. Having financial difficulties, John rents Beauty as a show horse to a wealthy family of knights, the Winthrops, for their spoiled pre-teen daughter Georgina (Fern Deacon). Jo despises Georgina's cruelty towards Beauty - the spoiled girl kicks the mare until she burns holes - but Jo still falls in love with Georgina's dreamy older brother, George (Calam Lynch).
Although Winslet is the prominent name on the cast list, "Black Beauty" does not materialize as the story of the horse, but of Jo. Unfortunately, even this character's grief is underwritten as she longs for an elusive teenage romance and a reunion with her beloved mare rather than revisiting her parents' deaths. Avis loses the novel's sincerity by diluting Sewell's animal welfare appeal. In this update, humans are not so villainous. Beauty is not so prominent. And the mustang spirit of the novel turns into an ordinary horse movie. This is a story between unlikely friends that has moved generations for more than a century, while also promoting debates about animal cruelty. Unfortunately, Mickey's studio film fails to create a significant bond between its protagonists and, consequently, with its audience.
As with the source material and its many adaptations since, director Ashley Avis begins "Black Beauty" with the colorful life of a young mare. Kate Winslet lends her voice to our mustang heroine from her humble roots in the American West (in fact, the film was shot in South Africa), through her journey through the hands of several different owners. Some are kind, like John Manly (Iain Glen) and his niece, Jo Green (Mackenzie Foy), who moves in with John after her parents' death. It is during this difficult time for humans that Beauty forms bonds with young Jo. Things are going as well as they could for Beauty after losing her home and her group when circumstances beyond John and Jo's control force her to be sold to other strangers, including a rescuer, a farmer, and some carriage drivers.
Avis's adaptation, which she also wrote and edited, brings "Black Beauty" to contemporary America, out of Victorian England. Here, Black Beauty is both harmed and helped by cellphones and forced to deal with the spoiled young rider, Georgina (Fern Deacon), and her ruthless mother, Mrs. Winthrop (Claire Forlani), who wants her daughter to win trophies in dressage competitions. In an added twist, the character of Jo, originally Joseph Greene in the book, receives much more backstory than any of the horse's other handlers and owners. Although she is absent for a considerable portion of the film, the horse thinks of her constantly, like a great first love that got away. "Black Beauty" also gives Jo a love interest, George (Calam Lynch), the opposite of her mother and sister's treatment of horses. Through Jo's experience, the film gently touches on the issue of class, delicately pointing out the differences between Jo, whose uncle works in a stable, the rich girls who make fun of her, and the Winthrops, who more or less make their own rules because they have their own stables. However, it's a little disconcerting to take on an animal's narrative and hand it over to developing the human characters, but after a while, the film shifts back to Beauty's point of view.
Although much of this "Black Beauty" departs from the original, the spirit of empathy and combating animal cruelty remains intact. Some of the novel's harshest scenes appear here as well, including the dark moment when Beauty realizes that one of her former stablemates, Ginger, has endured a terrible life that comes to a heartless end. The film also makes reference to the uncomfortable standard of beauty imposed on these animals for competitions. Mrs. Winthrop is obsessed with seeing the horse's head held high for dressage, a reference to the Victorian standard that also forced horses' heads into uncomfortable and unnatural positions. The publication of the book helped eliminate the practice from most conventional uses, but as the film shows, the cruelty that keeps a horse working day and night pulling a carriage or being forced into dangerous situations that threaten its well-being still it is as prevalent as it has ever been.
But not everything goes so well in this adaptation. The mare's narration (voice of Kate Winslet) throughout its duration is the way in which the script tries to take the viewer into the animal's soul. The big problem is that this device is used as a lazy narrative crutch for absolutely everything that involves any other character's feelings. If Jo is sad, the mare needs to say "Jo was so sad"; if John becomes concerned, she needs to state this fact. It seems that the actors were hired just to have a face that the viewer can associate names with, because their emotions are not felt, only described by Beauty. It is a script that tells the story, but does not show it, does not illustrate it, making little use of cinematic language. The film sounds like an immense soundtrack - beautiful in fact - by Guillaume Roussel ("Predator Instinct") populated by images, directed by the almost debutant Ashley Avis. The volume of the track is not only very high, but it also seems to guide all the events, in order to be even more predictable than the script already is.
The story is episodic, with Jo and Beauty being separated, and the mare passing through several owners, some good, some cruel, but the proud Beauty always keeps her spirits quietly high, while Jo dreams of meeting Beauty again one day. ("The Call of the Wild" and "War Horse" were both, in their own ways, influenced by this story). Horses don't have the same appeal as dogs, but the story is enjoyable, especially for those who have never come across an adaptation of Anna Sewel's work. And it is with this new audience in mind that Disney makes these commercial moves, especially now with streaming. If, on the one hand, some supporting characters are extremely stereotypical, such as the mother (Claire Forlani) and sister (Fern Deacon) of our protagonist's romantic partner, on the other, we have an honest Mackenzie Foy with her soft voice and angelic face, bringing the feelings of suffering, anger and the transformation that Beauty causes in her life in a captivating way. Iain Glen ("My Cousin Raquel") as Jo's uncle is another who always steals the scenes with his dramatic performance.
Avis' film clearly loves its four-legged protagonists. Through David Procter's cinematography, it recreates the look and feel of one of Disney's nature documentaries in the early moments of Black Beauty's life. It's an idealized golden hour look at a group of horses galloping across fields and in the shadows of mountains. It's no wonder leaving these scenes feels like a real loss. Without humans and their dramas to get in the way, we can just enjoy horses without our hindrances, saddles, bridles, or whips. This makes the audience want to spend more time with Black Beauty than with Jo or any other human character in her path. It's a narrative choice that may work better for some than others and probably won't please the book's devotees. This 2020 version of "Black Beauty" is the most discreet adaptation of Anna Sewell's classic story, but with the necessary brightness to captivate the audience of Disney streaming subscribers about an intense and emotional friendship between a girl and her mustang packed with an immersive and exciting soundtrack.