One of Roddy McDowell's most endearing roles as a child actor was as young Ken McLaughlin in My Friend Flicka. The film has deservedly become an international children's classic.Young Mr. McLaughlin has become quite the headache for his parents Preston Foster and Rita Johnson, his grades slipping and his chores on the horse ranch they have left undone. Johnson decides that he should get a colt anyway to teach him a sense of responsibility and Foster goes along with the idea, a bit reluctantly.The bonding of the colt Flicka with McDowell is something to see. It's quite touching and real and the two see through some rough patches. The colt's mother has a streak of crazy wildness in her and a particular piece of wildness kills her. This is where Preston Foster gets his doubts, but love between the boy and horse win out.Studios which were starting to use color before the war pretty much switched to black and white. 20th Century Fox probably did more color features than other studios, mostly for their splashy musicals. The color cinematography here makes My Friend Flicka timeless and salable for today's taste.Good family film, still holds up well since the World War II years.

This film is great! It is perfect in all ways! It has some really good acting, good plot, good director, and good characters! The plot is, young Ken Mclaughin cannot please his father.He day dreams of horses galloping through fields, when he instead should be doing his homework and chores.He finds a wild horse that he tries to train and take care of, so he can prove to his parents that he is responsible.The movie is great with some sad parts, but overall is a great, fun film for the entire family to enjoy! You really should buy the DVD, you will not be disappointed at all! It's a wonderful family film! It is MUCH better then the awful remake that doesn't even follow the book! The remake is horrible, you should REALLY watch this one and it's sequels.It is such a good movie.10/10!

I was about that, in a much quieter age, when I first saw Flicka. I was enthralled by the brave young hero and it left a very strong mark on me. Being young, and unsophisticated, I didn't have LOTR or Star Wars or any of today's high tech films to compare it to. I had Hoppalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid and Roy Rogers, amongst other cowboy heroes. And then along comes this kid whose not a lot older than I was at the time being brave and honorable and fighting for what's right. I haven't seen it again since, and I'm not sure what my adult reaction to it would be. I'm sure the kids of today would be too sophisticated for the pleasures that I drew from it. So it goes....

This is a mediocre movie from a brilliant book. The script writers did everything they could to slaughter it, making it into a cutesy children's movie. Not to be outdone, the casting department then finished pulling everything apart, leaving it to the actors to attempt a salvage. Roddy McDowall turned in a good performance as always; there was just something about his English accent that seemed out of place on the Wyoming plane.I voted a six, because it's a fair movie if you forget that it's supposed to be from the book, which apparently nobody in the crew read.