horses – NZ Film Freak

Top 10: Best Animated Horse Characters

Even though the majority of animated horses on the big screens are ‘white stallions’, many of them play prominent roles as the hero’s side-kick (no pun intended). Strangely all the horses are male… Anywho, here are the best equine characters:

Maximus in Tangled (2010)
My favourite animated horse ever. He is angry, sassy, rude and very funny indeed. Whereas most cartoon horses are cuddly and noble, Maximus is a total ass. And I love it.

Angus in Brave (2012)
Despite his size, this shire is easily scared. Despite this, Angus is a trusty partner to Merida. I adore the scene where they go galloping through the forest together! (Please watch the scene below.) He’s a personal favourite of mine because Angus and Merida remind me of my giant pony and I!

Donkey in Shrek 2 (2004)
Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) is a favourite equine side-kick of many, but I’m sure you were just as elated as I was when he became a humorous white stallion in Shrek 2. “I’m a stallion, baby!”

Altivo in The Road to Eldorado (2000)
The ‘ruthless war horse’ named Altivo is anything but. He is a vocal and very food-orientated horse who accompanies the two main characters to Edorado.

Tucker in Racing Stripes (2005)
While there are many horses in this movie, the best horse side-kick character has got to be the bay shetland pony, Tucker, voiced by Dustin Hoffman. He is an old-school character who helps train Stripes the zebra to be a racehorse. While Tucker is a real-life pony, there’s a lot of animation that goes into making him talk. “To me you’re just a horse with stripes who needs an attitude adjustment!”

Bullseye in Toy Story 2 (1999) and Toy Story 3 (2010)
A remarkably dog-like horse who is ridden by Jessie. Bullseye is a loyal, gangly and fun horse who will do anything for anyone.

Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
Voiced by Matt Damon, this more serious animated movie is a classic ‘cowboy and indian’ story. Spirit is a strong and brave stallion who fights to protect his herd and refuses to be ridden by the cowboys.

Philippe in Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Although he’s not prominent in the film, Philippe is still the sweetest animated horse. He’s not particularly brave but he’s important enough to have a named part in the film. He is not, however, represented as well in the 2017 remake where they make Phillipe a dapple grey, and without the same expression or character as the animation – but I suppose that’s to be expected.

Achilles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
This horse does next to nothing, actually, other than sit on people’s heads on demand. Which, I think is a good enough reason to make the list.

Pegasus in Hercules (1997)
Created by Zeus for Hercules, Pegasus is a ‘bird-brained’ horse who is Hercules’s best friend and side-kick. Classically, this animated horse is dog-like in many situations, responding to whistles and licking people.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Director: Rupert Sanders
Writers: Based upon Snow White by Brothers Grimm
Released: June 2012
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin
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I don’t think you can really read too much into this film. At the end of the day it is based on a simple fairytale, but it is an action-packed and exciting take on it. Quite a bit of violence, which was more realistic than I thought it would be, with battle scenes that were very captivating.

I know everyone, including myself, went to see it secretly to criticise Kristen Stewart’s performance. It wasn’t bad, but it was obvious that she was not the ideal Snow White. She had very little dialogue, and when she did speak, her typically emotionless facials were replaced by concentration, probably focussing on her English accent.

I have to say, I thought Snow White would have been more feminine and smiley… I don’t know if she wasn’t because of Stewart’s portrayal of her, or because the makers wanted to portray a more dark and gothic version of Snow White.

This kind of Snow White reminded me of Katniss from The Hunger Games – a strong, feminine warrior. But every production company has got to make their money somehow, right? And what better way than to use the Twilight star.

I thought they would choose a more unknown actress for Snow White (like Tim Burton did for the protagonist in Alice In Wonderland). Turned out I was right, this was considered at the beginning. I hadn’t heard of Felicity Jones before the likes of Cemetery Junction, but after seeing this photo of her… wouldn’t it have been an no-brainer to cast her!?

Queen

The evil stepmother/Queen played by Charlize Theron was another casting decision I don’t think was a bad choice exactly… But she was a tad theatrical at the beginning, which don’t get me wrong, is probably appropriate. But it was almost too much.

It reminded me of Anne Hathaway’s sickly sweet performance as the White Queen in Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.

The seven dwarves were great. Although I do wish their names were like the well-known Disney version (Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful and Grumpy, which became Beith, Coll, Duir, Gort, Muir, Nion, and Quert).

The-Dwarves-in-Snow-White-and-the-Huntsman

However, it did dawn on me during the film that the genre of this interpretation is totally different, therefore the less comedic angle was adopted.

Having been so critical so far, I have to say that I did enjoy this film. The visual effects were incredible. The Mirror Man leaked out of the mirror like metallic silk… It was solid yet liquid, which was super cool.

The dark forest was pretty awesome too which was convincingly contrasted with the sanctuary where the dwarves lived.

This is a film worth seeing. The stunts (and stunt horses) were fantastic, the animation was insane and yet, the original Snow White story was still there.

My expectations of a flailing and weak Snow White with a strong love story was totally not what the film was. It is The Hunger Games meets Alice In Wonderland (2010) with strong characters, violence and action. A fairytale for the modern tween.

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10

PS: I can’t help but say that if you look closely at the close ups of Kristen riding the grey horse bareback, you can tell she is sitting in a saddle with her dress draped over it.
PP.SS: As my friend mentioned to me during the movie, I was also disappointed that the dwarves were not riding miniature horses.

War Horse

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Michael Morpurgo
Released: 2011
Starring: Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine
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Wow. What a spectacular disappointment.

So I went into the cinema with my tissues already to go, as I was expecting another epic Spielberg film that would be as shocking and as accurate as Saving Private Ryan and even more tragic and as touching as Black Beauty.

Sobbing — How I felt before War Horse – ready for a sad and heroic film

I was forgiving at first:

“Okay, the colt is played by a filly… I can get over that…”

“Okay, the foal has different markings to the previous scene…”

But then we got to Albert training the horse, Joey. My suspension of disbelief was non-existent when it was implied that the horse was trained by being spoken to – in English no less.

I mean the farmer dude was saying “hey Joey. Stay… Stay… Stay…. Now come here!” and the horse would come trotting over when he said so… I mean with NO previous training – that’s not possible.

Believe you me, horses don’t learn things by being spoken at. (Although I couldn’t help but try it out on my horse Apache when I got home… He looked at me weird then turned and walked away.

Nor do horses learn by copying a human, such as when Albert wanted to put a harness on Joey. They obviously had two stunt horses; the first one threw his head around at the sight of the harness, but then Albert was all like; ‘come on Joey we need you to plough the field… See you just put your nose through like this’. Then the boy put his head through the harness to show the horse what he meant (smart guy).

Then, HEY PRESTO! The horse had learned, and the other stunt horse – who was trained to have a harness on – seamlessly took the previous horse’s place and they were ready to go to plough the field! Warm and fuzzies… But, I. Mean. Seriously.

I was almost sick in my mouth when Joey ‘taught’ his horse friend how to put a harness on… Because that’s what horses would really do.

Moving on from the horse, the human actors – to put it plainly – sucked ass. Some of the actors couldn’t quite hold their accents very well, such as Emilie (Celine Buckens) who was supposed to be a French girl yet she sounded English. (Hey I was right! I just checked Wikipedia and she is English.)

Some of the actors were very unbelievable, particularly on the battle fields, like when a soldier got shot in the leg, Albert helped him up and they both ran to safety… Ran to safety… Running.

I didn’t shed a tear or feel upset AT ALL during this movie, except, perhaps, when it finished because I felt so disappointed.

I was expecting epic music like Danny Elfman’s in Black Beauty which makes you cry just listening to it. I was expecting fewer stereotypical scenes and more realistic reactions from horses. But they gave the animals human emotions… and the ability to understand English…

I think that’s what made this film go completely topsy-turvey. It was a horrific and graphic story that was seriously sugar-coated. I believe it was aimed at the younger audiences who have recently been weened off Disney films.

Steven, it could have been A-MA-ZING if it was historically accurate!

There were two scenes, however, that had the potential to be memorable scenes if they didn’t try to shelter the audience so much. One was when two German soldiers were shot because they tried to escape the fight on horseback. But the windmill blocked your vision and the extreme wide shot added zero emotion to it.

The other scene was when the English soldier surrendered to walk onto the battlefield to rescue ‘Joey’ from barbed wire and the German enemy came to help. Now this scene would have been so meaningful if it wasn’t for them being too casual with each other. It was pretty much the sort of conversation two old highschool bullies would have had if they met each other forty years later in a department store.

Really?? This is war! Not something to be made light heartedly. Spielberg should know that – he made the most accurate WW2 movie in Hollywood’s history.

I expected Saving Private Ryan/Schindler’s List mixed with Black Beauty... Not Babe mixed with a film that should have gone straight to DVD…

Jodie’s regretful and disappointing rating of: 3/10

Awwwww but the trailer looks so goooooood!! :( Especially the part where the horses are in the girl’s room. (But when you watch the film you see that to get to Emilie’s room, the horses would have had to climb up a staircase that looked like a ladder…)