Frankie Muniz and Dustin Hoffman are among an eclectic cast who lend their voices to Racing Stripes. It's "a breezy caper" by up-and-coming director Frederik Du Chau using real animals and effects trickery to tell the story of a humble zebra who dreams of winning the Kentucky Derby. With CG animation moving in leaps and bounds, this type of kids' movie appears to be going out of fashion. While it did fair business at the box office, it was a long way from catching up with the likes of Shrek and Finding Nemo.
Animal House
Besides providing the opportunity to coo over baby zebras, Animal Acting 101 explores the relationship between animal and trainer on the set. Of course actors are a sensitive bunch and these critters were no different. In fact Goose the pelican became so agitated with her wrangler at one point that he attempted to swallow her whole! Sadly we don't get to see that in the outtakes reel, but Snoop Dogg does offer a few words of wisdom such as, "Like my momma used to say, you can put your boots in the oven, but that don't make ‘em biscuits." Um, we're sure this can be applied to hungry Pelicans and overzealous trainers in some way...
Five additional scenes are made up of 30-second snippets that include a really bad headless chicken joke. An alternate ending is marginally more substantial at a minute-and-a-half which is just enough time to introduce the half-striped offspring of Stripes and Sandy (Mandy Moore). Aw...
Going The Distance
How To Make Animals Talk looks briefly into the process of turning a barnyard animal into a big screen star. Essentially it involves a combination of clever editing, CG manipulation and a talented voice artist. As Dustin Hoffman explains between loops in the sound booth, "Some actors want to play Hamlet. I just want to play a Shetland pony." Elsewhere Sting and Bryan Adams offer a few words on the film's signature tunes Taking The Inside Rail and It Ain't Over Yet.
For a more in-depth explanation of how the film came together, a commentary by director Frederik Du Chau offers all the answers. As well as notes on visual effects and animatronics, he throws in a few fun zebra facts. For instance, after watching this disc you can impress your friends with knowledge that a female zebra will circle its newborn for hours in order to imprint the pattern of her stripes on the foal's memory.
Younger viewers will enjoy a comicbook featurette that tells Stripes' backstory and an interactive racehorse game. Like the cast of the movie, this DVD is mostly fluff, but it's enough to keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours.
EXTRA FEATURES
