The Black Stallion Returns

This 1983 adaptation of the Walter Farley novel -- on in a series of "Black Stallion" books -- is in many ways an old-fashioned wholesome youth adventure flick, but seen through modern eyes it's also a faintly racist cartoon filled with unlikely exploits -- don't try any of this stuff, kids, whether at home or abroad!

Kelly Reno returns to the role of Alec in this sequel to 1979's "The Black Stallion." In the first film, Alec's father went down with just about everyone else aboard a steam ship; only Alec and a magnificent black Arabian horse survived. Now, a few years later, and after boy and horse have gained global fame, two different desert tribes have designs on acquiring the steed (whom Alec has dubbed "The Black," but whom the tribespeople refer to as Gitane). One tribe are the vicious and deceitful Uruk, led by the equally vicious and deceitful Kurr (Allen Garfield), a guy so mean he torches Alec's barn to get his hands on The Black.

But the other tribe -- while still depicted in a condescending, and sometimes faintly sinister manner -- are the much kinder previous owners of the horse and they see their activities not as stealing him but as reclaiming him. They have a legitimate need to do so: A once-every-five-years race in which various desert peoples compete for wealth and status. The leader of the tribe that used to own the horse is named Abu Ben Ishak (Ferdinand Mayne), and soon enough his people are scrapping with the Uruk over possession of the prized animal.

But Alec prizes The Black, too, and being a resourceful all-American boy he's soon hopping aeroplanes and braving the Moroccan desert to find his beloved equine friend. A dangerous encounter with Kurr leaves Alec stuck in the desert, but he's soon befriended -- though grudgingly -- by a young nobleman named Raj (Vincent Spano). Clashes with the Uruk follow, and Raj's faithful bodyguard Meslar (Woody Strode) is presumed lost; when Alec does make his way to Ishak's tribe, he's told that Ishak's granddaughter, Tabari (Jodi Thelen) is the horse's one true master, leaving Alec crushed. But never fear: The film is moving the pieces around just as you know it must in order to achieve the inevitable ending.

For a boy's own sort of story, this is pretty good: Lively and spirited, and not overly concerned with what Alec's mother (Teri Garr) must be thinking back in heartland, U.S.A. The action sequences are pretty pat, with far from credible gunplay and some outright comic touches, but they do carry an old-fashioned movie serial flavor.

Elevating the film are the gorgeous locations, in Algeria and Morocco, which cinematographer Carlo Di Palma captures nicely. This is family-friendly fare that might give you just a bit of an embarrassed blush to put on for kids (a discussion about stereotypes and non-American, non-Christian cultures might be called for to counter some of the film's more cringe-worthy beats), but if youthful audiences can still thrill to tall tales about a veterinarian who chats with animals domestic and wild, they can surely handle this.

"The Black Stallion Returns"
Blu-ray
$29.95
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/black-stallion-returns-the-blu-ray