uring the otherwise serious award-driven movie season,
a welcome blast of family fun arrives this winter in the form of Racing Stripes, starring Hayden Panettiere.

  After playing Kate Hudson's oldest niece in Raising Helen earlier this year, Panettiere is quickly becoming a familiar young face to moviegoers. She's since wrapped roles in three more films -- The Dust Factory, Ice Princess and Racing Stripes.

  In Racing Stripes, Hayden stars as Channing Walsh, whose father, Nolan, is played by Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood (JFK in 13 Days). Driving home one rainy night, Nolan nearly runs over a baby zebra that was mistakenly left behind by a travelling circus. A former horse trainer, he takes the foal home to his farm, and Channing immediately falls in love with the zebra, naming him Stripes. While the humans fetch blankets and warm milk for Stripes, the other barn animals come out to inspect the new arrival. Franny (voiced by  Whoopi Goldberg) is the wise old goat who keeps the others
actors
Bruce Greenwood  Hayden Panettiere  Wendy Malick  M. Emmett Walsh  Gary Bullock 

director Frederik Du Chau 

location
South Africa 

outtake  
In addition to the 15 zebras used to portray Stripes, a white pony with  painted-on black stripes appears  in some scenes.

in line, and Tucker the Shetland pony (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) becomes Stripes' mentor.

  Stripes (voiced by Frankie Muniz) grows up believing he's a racehorse.  He loves to run, and since their farm is next door to a racetrack, he can see the thoroughbreds going through their paces. Zebras aren't known for their ride ability, so Channing doesn't even think of riding him until one day when her bike breaks down. She works at the racetrack and sensing Stripes' desire to run, lets him loose on the track. They're timed by an old friend of her father's, and it turns out that despite Stripes' small size, he has the potential to break track records.

  During the four month shoot in South Africa, Hayden was given intensive riding training by the film's horse wrangler, Heath Harris. "He taught me to ride and feel comfortable on a horse in six weeks," she told South African newspaper The Witness. "It's been so amazing -- I've learned to love horses."

  Though the South African weather posed a dilemma, alternating between blazing heat, howling winds and steady drizzle, the film shows none of the difficulties the cast and crew encountered during shooting. "It's been a huge problem," director Frederik Du Chau admitted to the The Witness, "but we managed to work around it." When asked why they chose to film in a place where the weather was so unpredictable, Du Chau's answer was short and sweet: "Zebras."

-  Alexandra Heilbron