{"id":21683,"date":"2020-11-29T15:36:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T23:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=21683"},"modified":"2020-11-29T15:36:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T23:36:47","slug":"black-beauty-is-made-exclusively-horse-adoring-youngsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=21683","title":{"rendered":"BLACK BEAUTY is Made Exclusively Horse-Adoring Youngsters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/24_0005_c-merged-copy.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5149\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This feature is available for streaming November 27<sup>th<\/sup>\non Disney+. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 1877 Anna Sewell novel <em>Black Beauty<\/em> is one of the\nbiggest selling books of all time. This tale, about the life of a horse and its\nmany experiences with various owners, has enchanted young readers for more than\na century. The latest film adaptation attempts to maintain the theme of\nencouraging animal welfare while updating the story to give it a modern twist.\nThe movie is impressively shot and will certainly impress youngsters who adore\nhorses, but is so earnest that most adults watching will find themselves rolling\ntheir eyes during several scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Beauty-01-FIXED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21686\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This tale is narrated by a wild mustang named Black Beauty (whose\ninner thoughts are voiced by Kate Winslet). The equine details her early years\nspent with her mother, learning a positive moral and ethical code. But when the\nfilly accidentally leads rustlers to the group, she is separated from her\nparent. Black Beauty is purchased by John Manly (Iain Glen) and taken to a\nranch in New York state. The animal feels angry and guilty about the\ncircumstances that have befallen her, but slowly learns that her new owner is\nkind and only breaks horses to help find them a home. Black Beauty soon makes a\nnew friend in Manly\u2019s niece, Jo Green (Mackenzie Foy), a sullen teen whose\nparents have passed away. The two lost souls quickly form a tight bond. As the\nyears pass, they become separated and Black Beauty attempts to survive various hardships\nin the hopes of someday being reunited with Jo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Beauty-04-Fixed-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21685\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The original book also anthropomorphized its title character\nand allowed it to share human-like emotions with the reader. Winslet certainly\ndoes her best, but some of the lines come across as awkward, particularly early\non in the film. While the narration clarifies the story and assists in moving\nthings along quickly, it is strange and does take some getting used to. We hear\nBlack Beauty analyzing the new people in her life through her thoughts and\nlater translating presumed conversations with other horses in English, but does\nnot always understand what\u2019s being spoken directly to her by human keepers.\nIt\u2019s admittedly unfair to critique a kid\u2019s movie for logic issues like this,\nbut the contrast does stand out at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Beauty-05-fixed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21688\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while some of Black Beauty\u2019s comments are surely translated\ndirectly from the source material, they sure do sound on-the-nose and wince-inducing\nfor older viewers. The animal becomes fond of the young human protagonist very fast\nand explains how even though she is a wild mustang, she still wants Jo to ride\nher and help the girl grow into a fearless woman. It\u2019s all very syrupy and comments\nlike, \u201cWe were two beings and yet\u2026 for just a moment\u2026 we were one,\u201d follow with\nthe two riding in front of scenic backdrops. This relationship between the\nequine and Jo is the sole focus of the first half of the picture. Other owners are\nsqueezed in briefly over later sections, but feel comparatively underdeveloped\nand one-note.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least the film looks great. Even if you might be wincing\nat some of the spoken wordplay, the photography is consistently impressive. As\nmentioned, Black Beauty spends a lot of time moving about in gorgeous locales\nand the camera catches some beautiful images of the horse racing along the\nbeach and trotting majestically at sunset. Everything about the picture looks\nimpressive and the cinematography at least provides something to focus on\nduring the narrative passages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Black-Beauty-03-FIXED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21687\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is ultimately a children\u2019s film about a young woman and\nher special bond with a mustang who has experienced the same kinds of personal\ntragedies. The movie has some noble things to say about treating all living\nthings with kindness and respect, but it\u2019s often blunt and overly direct in its\ndelivery of these themes. If you\u2019re a young person who loves everything about\nhorses, then <em>Black Beauty<\/em> will be engrossing. However, be warned that\nfor adults, large sections of the film will come off as overly sentimental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This feature is available for streaming November 27th on Disney+. The 1877 Anna Sewell novel Black Beauty is one of the biggest selling books of all time. This tale, about the life of a horse and its many experiences with various owners, has enchanted young readers for more than a century. The latest film adaptation [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,741,2829,2831,2832,2833,5922,7283,7287,9344,9607,11484,11663,12848,14434,15072,24661],"class_list":["post-21683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-adaptation","tag-black-beauty","tag-black-beauty-film-review","tag-black-beauty-movie-review","tag-black-beauty-review","tag-disney","tag-family","tag-family-film","tag-horse","tag-iain-glen","tag-kate-winslet","tag-kids-film","tag-mackenzie-foy","tag-mustang","tag-novel","tag-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}