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# ‘Racing Stripes’ will have a short screen life
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/racing-stripes-will-have-a-short-screen-life/
- Published: 2005-01-14T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:00:39.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Cemeteries are filled with those whose hearts, although in the right place, simply did not function properly. So it is with “Racing Stripes,” a well-meaning but highly flawed family flick set in the world of thoroughbred racing that seems destined to be DOA in theaters this weekend. There’s only so much referential humor, genre conventions and excrement gags a reasonable human being can tolerate, and here we get too much of all that PLUS David Spade and Frankie Muniz. There’s an audience for this tripe — namely, little kids who aren’t sophisticated enough to grasp the slick unconventionality of “Spongebob Squarepants.” Pity the poor caretakers of these budding pre-schoolers, for the 94 minutes “Racing Stripes” wastes cannot be reclaimed.

Stripes (voiced by Muniz) is a lost circus zebra taken in and raised by a horse farmer (Bruce Greenwood) and his daughter (Hayden Panettiere). This confused herbivorous hoofed mammal thinks he’s a horse and shares the barnyard with a gaggle of annoying critters, among them Goose (Joe Pantoliano), a pelican from Jersey with an unfortunate penchant for quoting famous cinematic mobsters, and a grumpy Shetland Pony named Tucker (Dustin Hoffman) who would have been far more appealing in a bottle of glue. Stripes is destined for a showdown against some real racehorses, and you don’t need to be an ace handicapper to accurately predict the outcome. As for the movie, well, it’s a loser by several lengths. (Rated PG for mild crude humor and some language. Running time: 94 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 14, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/011405.pdf?ref=smdp.com)