subject: Ought To Watch Movie - Moondance Alexander [print this page] As motion pictures go this one falls short in many areas, particularly dialog and acting, which is sometimes amateurish. But you can't find fault with the family story, revolving around a younger teen girl who is different, including her first name "Moondance." Kay Panabaker is Moondance. Her dad passed not long ago but she still had her artist mother Gelsey, played well by 40-something Lori Loughlin. By her own admission, Moondance has very few, if any, friends because many other students make fun of her name and the way she dresses. The movie starts off on the last day of school as summer break commences.
She's a small job, utilizing her bike to make little package deliveries within the countryside area encircling her home (filmed inside the Canadian Rockies as well as encompassing places). At one point, while riding along a dirt road, a Pinto horse appears before her, seemingly leaping a fence. We all later discover this can be a common practice of the Pinto, whom she names "Checkers", which later comes in handy in a jumping competition.
As a result the horse is not lost, but is actually owned by Don Johnson as Dante, a guy of gruff attitude and very few words. We later find out he had been a horse trainer but some thing happened and he had quit. Moondance doesn't desire to be separated from Checkers, so she makes a deal to work free, starting at 6:30AM on a daily basis, cleaning stalls, etc and in return she gets to ride Checkers.
It is difficult to discover why skater Sasha Cohen has a role, other than it seems she has acting dreams. Here she is cast as Fiona Hughes, a nasty and self-centered girl who won the Junior jumping championship last year, and who takes every opportunity to put Moondance down. There is no subtlety to her acting.
Dante agrees to help Moondance and Checkers get ready for the yearly jumping competition. But he warns her not to get her hopes up. Nevertheless they do well, have a flawless ride, and end up co-champions with the mean Fiona. Demonstrating that "different" can be quite good under the right conditions.
All round a superb family film, with an above average message, and no bad language, zero sex, absolutely no violence. We all need more motion pictures with those qualities.
