Movie Review: Black Beauty

 Movie Review: Black Beauty                                                                                      9-17-25

Like the Anna Sewell novel that inspired it, this film adaptation is told from the perspective of a majestic stallion named Black Beauty. As a colt, Black Beauty has a relaxed life in the English countryside, owned by the kindly farmer Grey. However, later in life, he is forced to work as a taxi horse in London. As an aged horse, Black Beauty finds himself in the care of loving owners again, but only after a series of thrilling hardships and triumphs.

Black Beauty is a forgotten 90s film that deserves another watch with a story that stays true to the source material, a surpassing amount of animals scattered through the movie, a great score from Danny Elfman, and outstanding animal action that almost rivals Babe.

Director Caroline Thompson made the right decision by having the characters mute, since it would be both too distracting and too expensive with getting voice actors, animatronics, and whatnot. Instead, Alan Cumming would narrate the movie as if he were Black Beauty.

If I were to make a complaint, it would be Black Beauty’ pacing: Sometimes the movies goes too fast, and some sit goes too slow. Maybe it was because I was writing this review on an iPad at the time and got sidetracked.

Unfortunately, Black Beauty was a box-office failure: Facing competition against The Lion King and Forrest Gump, this equine adventure only earned back 4 million dollars on a 15-million-dollar budget. Nether the less, Black Beauty is still a decent movie to watch with your kids.

Review: 3.46 stars out of 5