I feel like I missed out on an essential teen experience by never connecting deeply with a troubled horse. It’s a classic animal movie trope, of a lost girl finding solace and understanding in an animal pal, and it’s all the fault of Anna Sewell and her seminal children’s novel Black Beauty.
Now, Disney have put together a handsome live-action adaptation of the novel, placing the classic story in a contemporary context. Kate Winslet even voices the titular mare, and Interstellar‘s Mackenzie Foy plays Beauty’s human companion.
Born free but taken away from her family and brought to a stable, Black Beauty longs to find her place in the world. Could the recently orphaned Jo offer a life-changing friendship for the intelligent yet stubborn horse? Probably, yes.
Here’s the elegaic trailer, which is certain to make some large percentage of the kids who watch it go “WOW can we get a horse?! I promise I’ll look after it and feed it and shovel its poop, please please please…”
Parents and nature-loving kids alike will be swept away by the lyrical, well, beauty of Black Beauty, which arrives on Disney+ on November 27. Don’t be surprised if you feel like going to a nearby grassy area and just running around freely for a while afterwards. A movie this sweeping and romantic will do that to you.
