Escape from the Dark

I enjoyed learning about the history of pit ponies. I never even knew they existed until I saw this movie. This movie is rich in history, culture, & customs. The story revolves around 3 kids who live in a mining town, two boys & a girl. The girl is the bosses daughter so she has better clothes & instead of going to school she has a live-in Governess who teaches her. She's not supposed to play with the boys because they're minors' kids. See what I mean by history & culture? There's a cave-in accident & some minors get stuck. They are running out of oxygen. The ponies are able to find them. When the boss decides to replace the ponies with machines the kids break tradition & worked together to keep the ponies from being destroyed. Fascinating stuff & a good ending for the ponies.

What a cracking little film!

I was not expecting this to be so great. 'The Littlest Horse Thieves' is a highly touching and well paced film from 1976, it's one of Disney's best live-action offerings up until this point in time.

The studio have done a crap tonne of animal and children stories in these early decades, some of them work nicely whilst some fall flat. This, however, is excellent. It sucked me right in, I was fully invested in the story of Dave, Alice, Tommy and 'their' ponies - especially the latter's spearhead, Flash. The ending hit me, I can't lie.

Andrew Harrison, Chloe Franks and Benjie Bolgar play the aforementioned human trio - they give what you'd expect from kid actors, but I appreciate their performances. You also have a number of adults involved, with my standouts being Alastair Sim (Harrogate) and Joe Gladwin (Bert).

Other positive parts include the locations and score, both of which are lovely. An outstanding film, one I would highly recommend!

The stage curtains open ...

Set in 1909, this is the courageous story of 3 brave children who set out to rescue pit ponies scheduled to be sent to the slaughterhouse because they are being replaced by modernized mining equipment. It is a well written and directed live-action Disney film that touches the heart in the setting of the harsh reality of living in a coal mining town during the turn of the century.

When Alice, the daughter of the quarry foreman, finds out that the pit ponies used to haul coal out of the mine are going to be slaughtered because they are no longer needed, she teams up with two boys from the town to set up a plan to sneak into the mines, steal the ponies, and hide them. Aided by a good-hearted man named Bert - the caretaker of the ponies - they find another way in to carry out their daring plan.

This was a film I remember watching when I was in school as a kid under the Amercian title of "The Littlest Horse Thieves". I remember liking it and I was able to finally track it down again all these years later. Watching it again, I was suprised at the level of reality that was represented with changes that they had to face back then, echoing down through the ages to changes we all face daily, some of which we may not like. But, like our littlest thieves, we all find a way to make the best of things and move on with a positive attitude.

I absolutely loved this movie upon rewatching it. This Disney film flew under the radar, and even among most people my age, it has become forgotten. I highly recommend it to anyone, who can find this lost gem, at a strong 8 stars out of 10.

Luckily this is not a syrupy-sweet Disney film. It was filmed entirely in the forbidding Yorkshire moors. And though you know it will be a happy ending, they make no bones about the fact that the small working ponies have spent their entire lives down in the coal mines and are about to be sold to the slaughterhouse. Alistair Sims makes his final movie appearance here - most of you will know him as Scrooge from the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" or in a featured role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Stage Fright."

This is a cute and heartwarming little movie about kids who develop a fantastic heist together, after planning to steal some horses (which are actually just ponies I think) from a mine company's owner who, after deciding to fully mechanize his operation and destroy the horses which are now useless to him and obsolete. It is a great family film but very hard to find here in North America and I eventually tracked down a second hand copy on tape from a television broadcast in I think the 1980s. The movie was originally made in the 1970s if I remember correctly.

The kids are great and the story is fun and realistic and never boring, even though it's a pretty simple plot. The kids will love this one, trust me. Also keep an eye out for Alastair Sim, a really fantastic and under-appreciated actor best known for his role as Scrooge in what I think is the hands down best version of that story ever filmed. I give this one 9/10.