Black Beauty (Widescreen/Full Screen)

Although lovingly filmed, with very pretty scenery, nice settings and good actors, this movie was disappointing. It was not its faithfulness to the book I call into question - a good movie adaptation will always have changes - but the style in which they were done.
Alan Cummings as the voice of Black Beauty was given an overly saccharine script in my opinion. Instead of giving the animal a realistic viewpoint, it was a whiny and naive portrayal. In a bizarre twist, Ginger was portrayed as Beauty's love interest, which I found completely incomprehensible, since Black Beauty is a) a gelding and b) it detracts from the true meaning of the story, which was that Ginger, a close companion during the best days of their youth together, was squandered and brought low by mens' cruelty.
I also found it jarring that none of the other horses were given voices of their own, especially the likes of Ginger and Merrylegs. They are portrayed interacting together at several points, yet while Black Beauty "speaks" during those times, he never refers to them speaking to him, nor do they ever speak directly in the film. It makes for an odd sense of dislocation, as you watch two horses acting out a scene together while the voice of one is reiterating the present happenings - without giving the other a viewpoint.

Despite the fact that it is Black Beauty's story, this film also succumbs to giving him a human character with whom he forms a "deep" relationship. I find it irritating that most movies whose main characters are supposed to be animals usually resort to enlarging or inventing a human character for them to have a special relationship with - presumably to give the story significance, or substance, to the audience. If the story is being told correctly, the audience should identify with the main character directly, not only through a human relationship.

Lastly, while some scenes were well done - notably Black Beauty's first experience with shoes - most of the horse scenes looked fake. Few and far between are the movies that portray horses in realistic ways. This is not one of them. The scenes with Ginger in pasture, when the two of them were reunited, were so obviously staged. Two horses, facing off camera, were being signalled to rear several times in a row. They were not even facing each other.
The action of the horses in harness was also lacking in realism. Neither horse traveled well in harness and when the bearing rein was supposedly put on, cranking their heads up, you couldn't tell the difference. When Ginger is stretching her neck out, supposedly in sympathy, it is another obvious horse trick - someone is holding a treat for her just off camera and she's stretching out her neck to get it.
Also, Doc's Keeping Time, the main equine actor, was signalled to perform an irritating trick of tossing his head around and up and down to indicate emotions. This is a bad habit for a horse to pick up and most people discourage it; beyond that it was irritating to watch because I knew it was a bad habit and therefore unrealistic, again, to the portrayal. Horses don't toss their heads around in that fashion when exhibiting such emotions.

Picturing Black Beauty lying down while he narrates his tale was also extremely irritating to me. Most horses do not lie down naturally or often; it was an unrealistic attempt to elicit an empathetic reaction from the audience. The only thing I could think was that a horse would never stay for long in that position.

The comic touches also fell flat. In addition, while I admire greatly any horse with the training and ability to perform such a demanding role, Doc's Keeping Time was the wrong physical type. The Black Beauty of that era was a thoroughbred and it is that type of horse which is needed to perform the roles of being a hunter and carriage horse with the correct style for the period. Doc's Keeping Time is an American Quarter Horse, and again, while I admire him greatly, the filmmakers should have spent some extra time or research finding an animal that better fit the role's requirements.
But the ending of the film was surprisingly good. For whatever reason, it touches an emotional chord. I recommend the film highly for children but for adults looking for a good horse movie - it will be amusing but probably disappointing.