The Black Stallion

Pauline Kael called this possibly the best kids movie ever made. She may not be far off. Unfortunately, I would imagine that kids today, after having been weaned on video games and generally sub-quality childrens entertainment, would probably fall asleep during the film. It's a hypnotic film that establishes an atmosphere early on and then sustains it for the remainder. The first half has very little dialogue and consists of a boy shipwrecked on an island with a beautiful but wild horse. The second half consists of the boy being rescued and learning to ride thanks to a generous, old farmer played in strongly professional performance by Mickey Rooney. But even the second half doesn't have much dialogue. It's a very visual film and a beautiful one. It's unfortunate that, with the possible exception of Pixar films, there are very few quality childrens films, and this is the kind that just hasn't been made in a long time.