Movie review
November 27, 2020 · 110 min · PG
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The movie gender-swaps the horse Black Beauty into a mare and makes the main human a teenage girl so the story can hammer the girl-horse bond as female empowerment. Director Ashley Avis openly called the change “timely” for “giving a voice to underrepresented ones today.” It keeps pushing girl power, mare leadership in herds, and resilience themes while adding light climate nods and heavy animal-welfare lectures on wild-horse roundups. Average viewers will clearly see the modern representation framing layered on the classic horse story.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Black Beauty.
Woke representation / casting
Visible gender swap of Black Beauty from stallion to mare plus female teen lead; director publicly framed as giving voice to “underrepresented” females for timely representation signaling.
Woke political dialogue
Light modern nods (climate change reference) plus updated animal-welfare lessons; no recurring explicit activist speeches on identity or politics.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative engine centers girl-mare bond, female resilience, and empowerment with noted feminist messages around mare leadership.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Depicts horse abuse and wild-horse roundups critically via animal-welfare lens; no reframing into modern identity politics, patriarchy, or systemic oppression.
Woke character or canon changes
Clear gender swap of protagonist horse and shift to female-focused story; publicly discussed by director as representation update.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Only fringe book-purist gripes on changes; no meaningful broader backlash claiming too-woke identity politics.
Creator track record context
Director’s consistent animal-welfare activism (nonprofit, documentary) supports context but shows no pattern of broader identity or social-justice projects.
Production
