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Stripes the zebra (voiced by Frankie Muniz) doesn’t know anything about his life before he was found by former racing horse trainer Nolan Walsh (Bruce Greenwood) and raised on the Walsh farm by Nolan’s daughter, Channing (Hayden Panettiere). In fact, Stripes doesn’t even realize that he’s a zebra. He thinks he’s a racehorse—just like the other horses on the farm next door—and he’s determined, just like they are, to win The Big Race. Unfortunately, Nolan gave up training horses after his wife was killed during a race—so Stripes turns to Tucker (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), an old Shetland pony, for help.
Teased by the neighborhood horses because he’s different, Stripes wants nothing more than to prove that he’s the racehorse that no one but his barnyard friends believe he really is. So, with the help of the rest of the animals on the farm, he gets Channing to ride him. Once she realizes how fast Stripes is, the only thing standing between them and their shot at winning The Big Race is Nolan—who’s not willing to lose his daughter the same way he lost his wife.
When Racing Stripes came out in theaters, I avoided it, assuming that it was going to be just another sappy animal movie, in which the good guys always win, and everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end. In fact, if it hadn’t been raining on the night it played on the English movie channel at the resort where we were vacationing, I still wouldn’t have seen it. But it was raining, and I don’t understand Malay, so it was Racing Stripes or nothing.
As it turns out, it is a sappy animal movie, in which the good guys always win, and everyone learns a valuable lesson in the end. But it’s not nearly as horribly, eye-rolling-ly sappy as I expected. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. The story may be entirely predictable, but it’s actually cute—and it was interesting enough to keep me from turning off the TV and pulling out a book instead. And while the film has a moral in the end, it also has just the right amount of irreverent humor—provided by Scuzz (voiced by David Spade), the ill-mannered horsefly. Sure, Racing Stripes may be a little bit sappy, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Instead, it’s a fun family movie (with, yes, a lesson to be learned in the end) that’s perfectly capable of keeping you and the kids entertained on a rainy night.
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