Il piccolo campione

1st watched 2/9/2003 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Henry Levin): Obvious feel-good movie that is too predictable. This is a heart-warming story of a young Mexican boy who is given a crippled son of a thoroughbred and with an operation becomes one of the fastest horses around. Behind this all is a fight over the horse from the former owner who gave the horse to the boy to it's newly appointment caretakers. The movie is at it's best when it's showing us behind-the-scenes footage of great horse races like the Kentucky Derby and close-ups of an operation that is done on "Royal" Champion to straighten his leg. It's at its worst trying to portray a evil owner(played by Vera Miles) who becomes reconciled with the others in the end(unbelievably so) and puts her totally out of character. A little "too" much feel-good and not enough realism to make for a believable story.

Saw this little gem while scrolling through Tubi TV; as a fan of horse racing it caught my eye and I'm glad I gave it a shot. I dock it one star for some things being a bit of a stretch but it's all in all a safe family movie featuring a gorgeous horse and a wonderful story of triumph over adversary, and what could have been a tragedy, and believing in someone that you hold dear to you.

Love horses, love a feel good movie that you want to watch with your family? Give this one a try. There was some amazing coverage of Royal Champion's leg straightening surgery and the coverage of the racing was splendid.

Stuart Whitman and Vera Miles must have been ashamed to watch themselves is the poorly scripted, inaccurate, almost ridiculous movie. The only well done parts were the actual race footages. The acting was hilarious!