The film is narrated by Black Beauty himself – in his mind by a man’s voice. He talks about his current life. Then the scene switches back to when he was born.

His mother gave birth to him, and he developed a sweet bond with her. In addition, he spent time with the other horses, as well.

As he grew older, he became more independent, although he still loved his mom. He then got sold to a family of an older boy, two young girls, and their parents. Their mother is sick, though.

Aside from that family, there is this boy, probably around 12 or 13 years old, who develops a bond with Black Beauty. He takes him out at times and Black Beauty enjoys his company.

Aside from Joe, Black Beauty also befriends this horse, Ginger.

Unfortunately, not everyone is kind to him. For example, some men try to force him to go over a flooded bridge. But he is too scared to. Yet the humans don’t care.

Lady Gordon, the wife of Lord Gordon, gets sick. On the way to the doctor, everyone stops at an inn. The horses stay in a barn.

Sadly, it catches fire. So, Joe helps Black Beauty as well as the other horses out.

Sometime later, the family that bought Black Beauty has to move since Lady Gordon, is too ill. However, Joe stays behind and continues to care for Black Beauty.

Sadly, he gets sold, too, breaking Joe’s heart. However, that is not the last time. Black Beauty gets different owners. And some treat him worse than others.

The concept was quite interesting. I also admire the idea of a person narrating for a horse to help the viewer understand him. It’s a good substitute for making him speak actual words out loud.

I felt sorry for Black Beauty. He suffered a lot throughout this movie. But at least he had a sweet relationship with Joe and even his mother during his early years.

Regardless of the strengths, though, this movie did not engage me as much as I hoped. One reason is because Black Beauty didn’t seem to have a goal. Or if he did, it wasn’t clear enough.

In every form of storytelling, the protagonist should always have a clear goal and work toward it. And that includes animal characters.

The first half was also a bit boring. I pushed myself to watch the whole thing. And the film is not very long. It’s only around an hour and a half.

Overall, I thought Black Beauty was just okay. If he had a goal obvious to the audience, the movie may have been better.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.