Hidalgo

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

Horse racing these days is reserved for midgets and alcoholics, so we were surprised when family-friendly Disney delivered an entertaining flick about a 3,000-mile horse race across the Arabian dessert in the late 1800s. But a second viewing of Viggo Mortensen as Frank Hopkins, the legendary racer who spun questionably elaborate tales in his memoirs, isn't nearly as arresting on a TV screen. Especially given that this is the weakest DVD release for a studio film in years. A single, nine-minute making-of featurette reveals that there were five different Hidalgo horses, some spray painted for continuity, and that it was terribly windy on set. Then there's the second featurette, which promises the history behind America's first horse on your DVD-ROM. Only we had to try it out on three different computers before it loaded properly, and all that hassle was for a simple 22-minute film that could have easily been included on the DVD as a regular feature. This is one horse that shouldn't have made it past the glue factory.

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