National Velvet

Watching the great Taylor as a child is fun, but that's about it.

Passes the time.

Horsie movies don't do anything for me

The appealing cast is the main asset of this heartwarming family classic. Ann Revere deservedly won Best Supporting Actress as Mrs. Brown (and I liked the conceit by which she and her husband addressed each other by their surnames until the tender scene at the end of the film), and Elizabeth Taylor is irrepressible. Mickey Rooney, who looks like Bill Clinton as a leprachaun, also adds a dimension of pathos with his fine performance. It's all rather sappy and unsurprising, but still enjoyable.

Family film about a young girl and her horse is melodramatic to its core and has an ending that can be seen coming a mile away, but it wears its heart on its sleeve and I found myself falling for its charms. Sometimes it is okay to let a film manipulate you. It helps when there are great performances and some solid film-making on display.

An absurdly saccharine story, but one that succeeds because of the charm of the concept and the very well drawn characterization of the family at its centre. It purposely holds back from being pure indulgence, and in doing so the huge leaps of reality it does take feel smaller and more grounded by comparison. It's still a bit too neat and upbeat for me to love, but I won't deny that I enjoyed it.

I'm not a great fan of horse movies, but this one triggered all the 'family movie' notions. Beautiful color, likable story of a ambitious little girl, and a breakthrough spotlight on young Elizabeth Taylor! Heartwarming!

It could possibly be that Taylor reminds me of my own daughter too much, but I found this to be sweet and charming. Loved the performance by Mrs Brown.

An overly long movie for its story, it's still got that old-timey charm to it. It's an inspiring story and all the sets look magical in the way they often did in movies of this era. Certainly not realistic, but cute. It was just difficult to remember that this story was supposedly set in the UK when the surroundings looked nothing like it and characters kept forgetting their British accent all the time.