Maria Geelbooi

Put Mr. Ed and Francis the talking mule in a room together and they still wouldn't yap as much as Lucky, the equine orphan hero of the overly-lengthy, overly-loquacious children's movie "Running Free."

Lucky is a beautiful brown horse born on a steamer taking beasts of burden to South Africa in 1914 for thankless work at a mining colony (insert slavery allusions here). He doesn't actually speak, it's not that kind of kid's movie. But he does incessantly narrate (with the voice of Lukas Haas) this utterly pedestrian parable about a foundling foal who befriends and similarly orphaned 10-year-old stable boy (Chase Moore) and grows up facing adversity, rivalry and World War I.

Pandering, obvious and a fidget-inspiring 123 minutes long, the movie's storyline is so basic that just about anyone who has seen a live-action Disney movie from the 1960s could have written a treatment for this script in an afternoon.

Continue reading: Running Free Review