Black Beauty (2020 film)

A wild mustang narrates her life from birth born free within the Onaqui Mountains of Utah. She explains that her mother taught her about everything, even what happens to horses when they expire; they fly into the sky and rest among the stars. One day, the mustang accidentally alerts some cowboys who proceed to wrangle her entire herd, resulting in the mustang never seeing her mother again. A horse trainer named John Manly arrives and purchases the mustang and takes her to Birtwick, a horse sanctuary. While she likes John due to his toughened and experienced spirit, the mustang continues to toy with him and refuses to cooperate with him, who nevertheless remains patient. The mustang ends up befriending two other horses named Ginger and Merrylegs.

John is informed that his sister and her husband have died in a car accident; leaving him to take in his niece, Jo Green. Jo wants nothing to do with John, especially since he rarely visited them, but becomes entranced with the mustang who continues to act difficult. However, the mustang recognizes Jo's pain as similar to her own and ends up connecting with her. Jo learns to tame the mustang and names her Black Beauty, or Beauty for short. John manages to get through to Jo by having her work in the stables and tend to Beauty on a regular basis. They popularize the phrase "partnering" a horse as opposed to "breaking" a horse. John informs Jo that they will eventually have to sell Beauty, but Jo refuses.

One night, a fire breaks out due to a distracted stable handler leaving a heater on and the horses have to be evacuated. With Birtwick losing money, Jo is concerned over Beauty having to be sold, but works out a deal with John's boss, Henry Gordon, so that she can work extra to earn the money to buy Beauty, though he states that they might lease her. The upper class Winthorp family arrive to purchase horses for their estate with the daughter Georgina immediately choosing Beauty to be leased. John manages to convince them to have Jo come along as her tenant. At the Earlshall estate, Beauty learns that her friend Ginger was purchased for the Winthorp's son George, who unlike Georgina, is kind and takes an interest in Jo.

Georgina is cruel and rude to Beauty who resists the urge to harm her as it would get her and Jo in trouble. Jo discovers that Beauty has serious injuries and George tries to have Jo be closer with her, but his mother puts an end to it. A race is held at a social gathering where Georgina's poor horse riding results in Beauty injuring one of her legs. George stands up to his mother and the Winthorps choose to return Beauty. However, John arrives to inform Jo that Birtwick is closing down and all the horses have to be sold. Beauty is taken away without Jo getting a chance to say goodbye to her. She becomes determined to find and buy her again.

Beauty is sold to a ranger named Terry and together go on daring rescue missions in the wilderness including rescuing a man from a raging river. Terry decides to retire and Beauty is given to a farmer who uses old tools, forcing her to work harder. She is soon given to a kind carriage driver in New York City named Jerry whose daughter chooses to name her Lady. On a particularly cold and snowy night, Beauty is reunited with Ginger who was sold without George's knowledge. She sadly tells her that she and Merrylegs were her only friends. She dies shortly afterwards. All this time, Beauty continues to think about Jo, who has not given up on finding her.

When Jerry becomes sick, Beauty is sold to another carriage company who are cruel and illegally sell the horses. While out driving, Beauty spots Ginger's body being taken away. Heart broken, Beauty sits on the road during her carriage rotation, which gains attention in the media. The company attempt to sell Beauty, but a kind stable boy named Manuel alerts the police of the activities and Jo finds Beauty and reunites with her. Jo reveals that she has managed to rebuild Birtwick in full and now works with John and George, whom she has now married, to help rehabilitate horses full time; discovering that Merrylegs was also recovered. Beauty happily continues to live with Jo for the rest of her life, adding that when she expired, she truly felt like she was flying.

Black Beauty is portrayed by four different horses: Spirit, Jenny, Awards and Rosie. The horse that portrays her as a foal, is coincidentally named Black Beauty. Beauty's mother is portrayed, coincidentally, by a horse named Beauty while Ginger was portrayed by Susie and Orion and Merrylegs was portrayed by Lulu Belle and Victoria.

It was announced in May 2019 that a new adaptation of the Anna Sewell novel was in development, with Ashley Avis writing and directing the film. Mackenzie Foy and Kate Winslet were set to star in the film.[1]

Filming began in South Africa in October 2019, with Claire Forlani and Iain Glen joining the cast.[2]

In July 2020, Walt Disney Pictures acquired distribution rights to the film from Constantin Film.[3] Black Beauty was released digitally on Disney+ on November 27, 2020.[4]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Unable to rein in the complexities of its source material, Black Beauty struggless to gallop out of the paddock."[5] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]

Common Sense Media rated the movie 3 out of 5 stars, stating : "Black Beauty is emotionally taxing, with the central horse suffering abuse, loss, and danger. - That said, the film, told mostly from the horse's perspective, ultimately shows a clear respect and admiration for the animals, and it conveys positive messages of loyalty, family, perseverance, resilience".[7] The New York Post rated the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars, stating : "One of the purposes of the book was to shine a line on animal cruelty, which is admirable — but “Black Beauty” veers so often into the dark and the sad I question how much appeal it’ll really have for the younger set. Still, if your tear ducts need cleaning, this is one holiday film that’ll get the job done".[8] Den Of Geek praised Ashley Avis's work, stating : "Ashley Avis hits all the plot points and throws in some fantastically pretty shots in the process, yet there is a lack of texture (both visually and narratively) that keeps this film from graduating from serviceable horse-girl film to something greater both within and outside the limits of Horse Girl Canon" and that the movie "lacks the thematic ambition of its source material, but is a serviceable addition to Horse Girl Canon".[9]

• Black Beauty at IMDb