A story about a lost zebra being raised by a legendary race horse trainer (Nolan Walsh) and his daughter (Channing) following some years after a racetrack accident causing the death of her mother and drove Nolan into retirement. But the zebra had a love for running and a high volt competitive heart. The other figures are a Shetland pony (Tucker, a goat (Fran), a Pelican (goose) a rooster (Reggie), 2 flies, (Buzz and Scuz), and Stripes' love interest horse,Sandy. There are also a host of other characters. Special effects were great as each animal was trained to do the things that were needed for the movie and with computer technology caused the screen images of the animals to appear to really talk. The work here was simply without equal. The plot centers on bringing the trainer (and Tucker)out of retirement to train Stripes for the Kentucky Open, a race for the best of the best. Dalrymple Stables had dominated the race for some time while Walsh was the trainer there. The animals seeing that Channing also loved to race saw that Nolan's fear of training horses after the accident extended to fear of letting Channing grow up. They set out to and did succeed in jarring Nolan into snapping out of it - and so the training of Stripes began to prepare him for the Kentucky Open as a challenger to the prohibitively favored Dalrymple entry, Trenton's Pride. Race day has some consisitency issues. Huge race but WalMArt parking lot set. The broadcasting voices were too hard to hear and reporters missed the bigger story - Nolan Walsh, ex-Dalrymple Trainer, out of retirement to train a ZEBRA to be ridden against Nolan's ex-employer, Dalrymple, by Channing Walsh, daughter of the trainer and also daughter of a champion female jockey of note. This latter connection was missed ENTIRELY by the background audio broadcast reporters (it would NEVER be missed). Stripes wins the big race, beating Pride, and they become friends. Sir Trenton, Pride's father and the villain of the movie, had kept them from a decent relationaship that you sense both Stripes and Pride wanted. Lots more to this movie and it is chock full of very good character lessons. For example, None of the Trenton line of champions had ever bothered to thank Tucker for helping to train them. Stripes in a moving moment broke from the winner's circle and humbly shrugged the collar of roses that was given to him onto Tuckers's shoulders and he was then took Tucker into the winner's circle with him. The human actors were all brilliant and the great actresses of today had better watch out for Hayden Pannetiere who was stunning. I am not a big Whoopie Goldberg fan but as Fran she was absolutely amazing. Same can be said of Dustin Hoffman who was well-matched to Whoopi. One of the few top family movies ever. Its complexity and quality surprised me as much as the more violent Kevin Costner's The Bodyguard. I bought several of each from Amazon. Stripes is the movie of champions!