And the voicing of Black Beauty as a character, while it may work as a narrator of a novel, doesn’t work as well on film. While Kate Winslet’s voice acting is fine, it’s just largely unnecessary. While there are certainly points where Black Beauty tells us something that we might not otherwise be able to learn, for the most part, Beauty simply describes the events of the film that we’re already watching, and thus it just isn’t that important. Perhaps there was a feeling that the young audience this film is clearly meant for could use the additional guidance, but I’d wager that’s only going to be the case for the youngest viewers. Most children would still understand what was happening, and how Black Beauty is feeling, without the help.
