Horse Tales Collection

"Mary White" is about a teenaged girl growing up in the midwest at the turn of the last century. The film recounts her enthusiasm for progressive social causes. There is a scene where she and a friend ride horses and talk about progresive social causes. And the title character is killed while riding a horse, in a slow-motion shot with repeats, so the audience is in no doubt that this is an accident and not a high-risk attempt at tree pruning. If this is a "horse lover's movie" then so is "Birth of a Nation," which is not about progressive causes but has as much interest in horses as this film.Now the reason this collection can get at least one star is "Wildfire: Arabian Heart." If you like laughing at bad movies, WAH is a treat. Production values are delightfully low, from the one-mike sound to choppy film editing. The main character is forced to spend a summer with a relative "in the country." She's dared to ride an Arabian horse in a race at the county fair. So far the film is entirely believable: We all know Arabian horse racing is a traditions at American county fairs -- just watch Hidalgo, which was filmed on location at a county fair. Unfortunately, the "county fair" turns out to be an amusement park with hay bales occasionally visible in some shots.SPOILER BELOW, BUT YOU'll THANK ME --Anyhow, a teenaged boy who works on the farm where this horse lives teaches her to ride. These are some of the most hilarious sequences -- the horse is a swaybacked, aged animal and the main character learns to ride by sitting on the horse, walking around a paddock, with the young boy holding the reins. That's it, round and round in a 20-foot circle with dialogue about how she's learning to ride and the horse is teaching her about life. Apparently those are the scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor, although in the scenes they kept the horse is certainly teaching her about show business.The horse isn't believable as a horse, let alone a race horse. The producers, who obviously couldn't afford any more horses, have a problem delivering on the promised, Ben-Hur climax of the film. Not to worry, however, because the poor horse dies the night before the big race. Now maybe this horse really died, maybe his agent told him the film was for distribution. I doubt it, however, as we never see a dead horse. The ending is so cheesey they couldn't even find a prop horse head and throw a blanket over it for the death scene a la Godfather. They just do closeups of the main characters standing around in the stall, reminiscing about the mystical power of the horse to change lives. From this bizarre serial eulogizing we gather that the horse knew he was ill but wouldn't let on there was something wrong, probably because they'd bring in a vet and wait until he was better before resuming shooting.The film ends with everyone leaning on a fence and watching this horse's offspring, which are fine horses, gamboling and trotting around in a field. Those are the horses they couldn't afford for this movie. Unfortunately they managed to finish the dialogue before the real horse-owner called the police and had the actors and crew arrested for trespassing. This is the kind of movie that shows you how hard it is to make even a mediocre film.I watched about half an hour of "Wind Dancer" which has the same production values as "Wildfire." There's a lot of talking about divorce, and how the girl's father needs to accept the advances of a neighbor lady. "Men have needs" -- they actually say that in the film -- and so I hurriedly ripped the DVD out before we ended up learning more on that subject, say, from scenes at a prison rodeo.When I watched "Misty," which is a Disney production, the grainy film transfer and muffled sound was too much. This entire collection of garbage went where it belongs, in the trash. Don't waste your money gambling that this is a decent collection of family-friendly horse films.

I bought it specifically for the movie "Misty" because its a Christmas gift for my sister. She and I have both been and seen the magnificent wild ponies of Chincoteague Island in Virginia. This volume also includes (3) other movies :Wind Dancer- introduces a story about a riding accident & a girl's recovery thru therapy animals.Wildfire- an unusual set of circumstances leads a girl to compete in a local country fair raceMary White- a Father's reflection on his daughter's life before her untimely death(she was an expert horsewoman)I think my sister will be pleased with this amazing collection of movies. It came very quickly, so if you have a horse lover to give this to, you'll get a bargain gift. Packaged well. I would definitely order from this company again.

Didn't look at the description good...thought I was ordering a book for the granddaughter, but they love watching the video when they come to our house.

I really like movies about animals especially when there is a challenge the animal or a person has to overcome. Each movie touches the heart of what animals are capable of doing and that animals help the healing process whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual. Horses are especially sensitive to those in need and reach out to comfort them. This is a great collection for anyone who likes animals especially horses.

I have seen the movie Misty and that is the reason I wanted this set and it is as good as I remembered. I have watched two of the other movies and they were not good at all. They are low budget movies that fail to keep my interest and are not what I expected. Mary Smith was hardly about horses at all so that was disappointing. Having said that, I guess I can't complain too much if I get one good movie out of the deal for six bucks.

Had never seen the movie of Misty. These are all good clean stories and enjoyable. But I would recommend them more for younger pre-teen or children. Some really good lessons to learn from these movies. Don't get that anymore in movies or TV. If you love animals, especially horses, ponies you will enjoy watching these movies. Worth watching.

These are for the grands, but 2 of them we nixed for them now(10 & 7). The others were watched this weekend with their visit and were well received.

Grand daughter loved it .

These were enjoyable films but the dialogue was very disjointed and artificial at times. The films seemed to be rather dated which is only natural as they were done many years ago. Despite this they were enjoyable but I couldn't rate higher because of the dialogue and the long unnatural pauses occurring.

Many thanks for the quick efficient service, this was a birthday gift and it arrived in plenty of time...5 star rating all round.

Rubbish film

Great movies, every one of them. I really liked the stories but my nephew who was holidaying with me at the time liked "The Bone Collector" better. Go figure he's 12 years old

movies are not in french, just in English. girlie movies, my boy didn't like them at all. could have been a better choices of movies in the packages. didin't even get into the 4th movie.