Heart-Rending ‘Flash’ Has Horse Sense

Kids generally aren’t wild about love stories--unless, of course, the tale involves a child’s love for an animal.

“Flash,” a throat-catching tale about a boy and a horse, should have them whinnying with pleasure. Airing Sunday night at 7 on ABC’s “The Wonderful World of Disney,” it stars Lucas Black (the boy in “Sling Blade”) as a 14-year-old who learns too much about life much too quickly. The horse--and the boy’s own horse sense--help him to persevere.

Black’s character, Connor, lives in rural Georgia with his widowed father (Brian Kerwin) and paternal grandmother (the ever-watchable Ellen Burstyn).

There’s a chestnut beauty of a horse for sale nearby, and Connor pays daily visits to hang over the fence and befriend the animal, named Flash. The boy asks his dad to buy the horse and, when pressed to explain his attachment to the animal, replies with one of those lines so endearingly typical of Disney-style movies: “The very first time I saw him, I felt--I don’t know--it was like he was made for me, and I think he felt it too.”

Dad is sympathetic, but he simply doesn’t have the $500 to buy Flash. What he does have, however, is folk wisdom, and his comment about finding work--”Something’ll turn up; it always does if you want it bad enough”--sets Connor off on a mission to own Flash.

Much stands in his way, including the villainous local mill owner (Tom Nowicki), who whips his thoroughbreds and, in an eerily similar way, uses his cold, withholding personality to whip his young son (Shawn Toovey). Meanwhile, in a straightforward and absolutely heart-rending sequence, Connor confronts death.

Alas, the script, by Monte Merrick (“8 Seconds,” ABC’s recent “Oliver Twist”), becomes ever more improbable from about midway to the end. But then, logic has never been the strong suit of these Disney-style films. They’re more concerned with delivering a solid lesson--here, it’s Connor’s carefully calculated responses to the many unpleasant surprises in his life--and inspiring aw--as in, “awww, isn’t that sweet?”

Director Simon Wincer (“Free Willy”) facilitates this, while delivering Norman Rockwell views--with only the faintest hints of dark around the edges--of life in the Georgia countryside.

But if the film works, it’s largely due to Black, who turns his darkly handsome boy’s-growing-into-a-man’s face into a subtly shaded canvas of thoughtful determination.

* “Flash” airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on ABC (Channel 7). The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).