Young Black Stallion (2003)

I am a Walter Farley Fan and have been since I was 5 years old. Have read every one of his books MULTIPLE times and now am saving them for my young grandsons to enjoy. Because of this early exposure to the grand adventures of the Black and his get, horses became part of my free-time life; moved to Montana because of it and raised Arabs as a pacifier.The Black's Dam's name is actually Aisha. She was a Chestnut and the horses chosen for the several "The Black" movies have accurately portrayed Walter Farley's descriptions. Not being critical and am very pleased that others have enjoyed the series as much as I.

The Young Black Stallion is not I agree as good as the original(the best) and the film that followed after that. It does take too long to start with and it is much too short, I also got the sense the film was over too soon. However, it is beautifully filmed and has a nice score. The scripting is mostly nice and sweet without feeling too sentimental and the story is very touching on the most part. The acting is good enough, with the girl and the horse particularly believable.All in all, I liked the movie. The original will always be the best to me and I would have loved the film to have been longer by perhaps extending the training sequence and the beginning to have not taken as long, however I found it overall beautiful and sweet. 8/10 Bethany Cox

OK, I have been a huge fan of the Black for a long time and was DISGUSTED after seeing this film. Let's name the problems...First this film has much of the same crew that the first two had. It has also been called the PREQUEL to the original Black Stallion. Why is it that they can't get Shetan's dam's name correct or her color?? In The Black Stallion Returns, we learn the Sagr was the Black's CHESTNUT mother and in this film she is a gray mare name Jenny?!?!?!?!? WTF? And it's set in Africa in 1946 and 1947...I could be wrong but the first one was set in the 1940's as well when the ship wrecks. Time line doesn't sound quite right to me. Also, as a goof, there is a friesian in the beginning of the movie that is supposed to be Shetan's father...upon further notice it appears to be a gelding. Ben Ishaak is the only character that remained to even make this film appear to be related to the previous two in any way. Might be a cute family film to some but it's my biggest movie disappointment of the year.

The scenery is superb! The characters are portrayed in a life-like manner. Neera and Black proved excellent! However, I was a little disappointed with the set-up of the story. It was slow-going for the first 30-minutes. It was great for the next 15-minutes. Then it was over. I felt that what I saw in the advertisement on the Disney channel is actually the entire movie. Wonderful story. I would have liked the beginning to have been shorter and the excitement last a little longer. After the movie I stated outloud, "That's it?"