"What's Flicka?" my husband asked when I told him the subject of this week's column.
"It's a movie about a horse," I said. "It used to be a TV show about a horse."
At least I thought it was a TV show. Upon further research, I discovered that I was correct. One-third correct. There was a TV show in 1956 called My Friend Flicka. It was also a classic children's novel with the same name. There was even another movie in 1943. You might remember it. I don't, but you might.
I never was one of those girly-girls that gets all silly over horses. I'm still not. I'm also not one of those girly-girls that gets all silly over movies about horses. My son and movie assistant, AEYOB, doesn't get especially like them either. I'm just telling you this in the interest of full disclosure. We didn't go into this with anything resembling excitement.
Do you know what else doesn't excite me? Country music. So when I learned that Tim McGraw was one of the stars of this movie my disinterest turned into full-blown dread. It would have been one thing if we were talking about Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade. That was good stuff. But Tim McGraw? Horses? Snooze fest, that's what that sounds like. And I just knew there would be a hokey theme song involved (I was right about that too). I'm just telling you.
Flicka's friend, in this version, is a young girl named Katy McLaughlin (Alison Lohman). Katy wants to stay home on her parents' horse farm in Wyoming. Her dad, Rob (McGraw) has other ideas. Running a ranch might be OK for Katy’s hot brother (Ryan Kwanten), but not for Katy. Dad wants her to do better things with her life. He and the family do without so they can send her to a snooty private school. Katy doesn't like the snooty private school and, naturally, she isn't doing well there.
Understandably, Dad is upset and decides that she has to spend the summer on the ranch pulling her weight. Katy soon finds Flicka and becomes enchanted with her. In case you hadn't already figured it out, Flicka is the horse (Flicka means "pretty girl" in Swedish). Unfortunately she is a wild horse and Rob fears that she is too wild to tame.
Not that Katy cares, of course. As her mother (Maria Bello) reminds her, and us, Katy has always been a wild child who never could stay in one place for long.
A few questions ran through my mind while watching this movie. First, why does Rob want Katy to leave Wyoming? What's wrong with Wyoming? Have you ever been there? I have. It rocks. You can plainly see this from the (I gotta admit) stunning scenery. The mountains are beautiful. The animals are beautiful. You can sit in a hot tub while it's snowing! It's not like she wouldn't have a job, after all Rob owns a horse farm. He's planning to give it to his son anyway. I don't get it.
More importantly, why do girls always have to be silly over horses?
I discovered, during the course of my ground-breaking research, that “Katy” is actually “Ken.” You heard me. In the book, TV series and original movie the main character was a boy. In the earlier versions Ken was wild and crazy kid who was given a horse to teach him about responsibility. I read an excerpt from the book. It sounded pretty good. Why would they change it up? Are horse-crazy girls somehow more palatable? More Hollywood? Was Roddy McDowell (“Ken” in the original move) not flicka enough? I think not. I don't understand why you would take a perfectly good story about a boy and his horse and turn it into a cliché. I'm just saying.
DVD extras:
Tim McGraw video “My Little Girl”
Flicka bloopers
(Sorry, AEYOB was not interested in approving the DVD extras.)
Flicka is now available on DVD
Rated PG
Wendy R., Movie Correspondent:
W endy’s column, “Family Flix“, published every Friday to Gather Essentials: Movies is your guide to family friendly movies, DVD’s, classics and new releases.Wendy R. is a mother of two and a film buff. All of her films are road-tested by an actual eight-year-old boy (AEYOB).
You can find all of Wendy’s Family Flix columns at http://gather.com/familyflix.
Keep up with Wendy’s other postings and Gather activity by joining his Gather network -- just click here grev3.gather.com and select the orange “Connect” button on the left-hand side of the page
You’ll find Wendy and other Movie Correspondents, plus celebrity content and plenty of other movie buffs at Movies.gather.com
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Comments: 14
More importantly, I'm sick of Disney telling my children that they won't find success in life until one or both of their parents dies or abandons them.
However... I love horses, and My Friend Flicka was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. I recall the Roddy MacDowell movie (before my time) and that there was a TV show, but I was all about the book, of course.
I'm furious that they decided this story had to be reworked so drastically! Will Old Yeller belong to a girl in LA next? sheesh!
Thank you, for being back such fun & quite lovely memories.
I'm glad to read the review/warning. I knew we should pass in the theater, and I'm glad we did.
Nicely assembled article. Many thanks to Mr AEYOB
However, I watched this movie and actually really enjoyed it. It strayed so far off from the original that it has it's own complet identity. I was prepared to dislike it as it was a remake with tons of changes as Wendy stated. However, I was pleasantly pleased, and I think alot of it has to do with how much the daddy character truly loved his little girl. This week has been a bad one for me, so of course it made me cry! LOL Nic--your girl's will love it!