Babe meets the ugly Duckling in a family caper with one distinguishing feature: its protagonist is a talking zebra. Lonely and abandoned, little Stripes must come to terms with being different from the thoroughbreds, with the help of a goat and a horse (as with Babe, all animals can talk to each other and the only Dr. Doolittle is the audience). Horses are the everyman - 'Step right up if you're horse enough', goes one line, should we be in doubt, and Stripes just doesn't fit in.
Visually, it's competent enough, blending CG-enhanced live-action beasts with the occasional animated comedy fly. But while the narrative stays close to Stripes' coming-of-age experience, it's at the cost of the age-old bond between child and animal. Although the farmer's daughter Panettiere claims to know Stripes better than anyone, he sees her merely as a route to acceptance, even tricking her into riding him, not the only time sabotage is used by these cynical critters.
A romantic storyline is dropped like a hot potato and, while there's a flicker of human emotion as the family comes to terms with Mom's fatal riding accident, it's been done before, and better. With pigs.