Wendy & Dixie – Wendy (2017)

Directed by: Dagmar Seume | 88 minutes | adventure, family | Actors: Jule Herman, Jasmin Gerat, Julius Hotz, Waldemar Kobus, Maren Kroymann, Henriette Morawe, Nadesha Brennicke, Benjamin Sadler, Lea Eileen Stönner, Jesse Albert, Rolf Berg, Axel Siefer, Christian Skibinski, Anton Weber

One used to have his bedroom full of posters of famous artists or movie stars, the other with sports heroes. And you had a third category: the horse girls. Every penny they had was spent on their hobby and every spare hour in their agenda they hung out at the riding school, preferably with a grooming pony or – for the girls from wealthy backgrounds, a horse of their own. Parents drove across town to take them to competitions, the summer holidays were dominated by pony camps, and they devoured magazines like the Penny. And yes, their room was full of pictures of stallions, mares and ponies. Although the number of horse girls has been steadily decreasing since the financial crisis, according to official figures from the Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation and the umbrella sports association NOC*NSF (a decrease of sixteen percent compared to 2014 figures), horses are still very popular among the target group (girls aged nine to sixteen on average). That is why, after genre classics such as ‘Black Beauty’ (1994), ‘The Horse Whisperer’ (1998) and ‘Seabiscuit’ (2003), films for horse girls are still being made.

For example, the film ‘Wendy & Dixie’ (2017) was released in Germany. With success, because a second film (original title ‘Wendy 2: Freundschaft für immer’ (2018)) followed a year later. ‘Wendy & Dixie’ is inspired by the German horse girl magazine ‘Wendy’, which first appeared in 1986 and has also produced several (audio) books and an animation series. At the center of the film is twelve-year-old Wendy (Jule Hermann), who was once a junior horse riding champion, but after a terrible fall no longer dares to climb on a horse or pony. After the death of her grandfather, she goes with her parents and older brother Tom (Julius Hotz) to her grandmother (Maren Kroymann), who runs the old horse stable ‘Rosenborg’ in the countryside. With the arrival of the modern and brand new riding school ‘St. Georg’ it is not easy for Wendy’s somewhat chaotic grandmother to keep her head above water and the owner of St. Georg, Ulrike Immhof (Nadeshda Brennicke) has already made an offer to buy ‘Rosenborg’. Since her accident, Wendy has developed a fear of horses. But the encounter with an injured fungus, who has escaped from butcher Röttgers (Waldemar Kobus) and has been wandering around ‘Rosenborg’ ever since, has a magical attraction for her. She decides to call the animal Dixie and a special friendship develops between man and animal. But when she shows Dixie to her parents, trouble arises. Her father (Benjamin Sadler) fears she will have another smash like that, with far worse consequences, and wants to return the animal to its rightful owner. And Ulrike’s evil daughter Vanessa (Henriette Morawe), who dreams of becoming the horse champion and defeating Wendy, wants to keep Dixie for herself and decides to kidnap the animal. Röttgers has also set his sights on Dixie, who kicked the butcher with an invalid during his escape attempt.

Despite poor critical acclaim, ‘Wendy & Dixie’ managed to attract some 611,000 people to German cinemas; this makes it the third most successful German film of 2017. This is a typical film that does very well, especially with a specific target group. The story is predictable and not too complicated. Carolin Hecht’s screenplay is a bit meager; the how and why Wendy and Dixie are so attracted to each other isn’t fleshed out enough and it lacks much-needed suspense. Director Dagmar Seume does her best to translate the wafer-thin story to the screen and succeeds reasonably well. Thanks to the captivating performance of the young Jule Hermann, we feel sympathy for Wendy, and Kroymann and Hotz provide some light-hearted moments. The horse Larimar, who takes on the role of Dixie, has been in front of the camera before (in the similar youth film ‘Ostwind 2′ from 2015) and differs in appearance from the standard film horses. That makes it all the more fascinating to watch. The environment (filmed in the countryside in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia) contributes to the slightly nostalgic atmosphere: gone with WiFi (much to the regret of Wendy’s mother and brother) and back to nature. If you belong to the ‘horse girls’ category, then ‘Wendy & Dixie’ will undoubtedly appeal to you. For the neutral viewer, it takes a while; the film looks fine and Wendy and her horse are charming appearances, but the story is too flat and the tension is unfortunately completely lacking.