Sam (Shelley Long) and Lester (Jay Thomas) are dimwitted petty criminals. All of their get rich schemes fall flat. BUT, one day, at a rodeo they believe they have hit pay dirt. One of the performers is a darling miniature horse named Ragtime. This tiny equine belongs to the Blue Family. Mr. Blue (Perry King) is a hotshot lawyer with very little time for his family. This upsets his wife and three cute kids. The youngest, Barkley (Justin Cooper) is especially close to Ragtime and Rag's animal pal Taylor the dog. At the rodeo, unknown to Barkley, Mr. Blue promises to sell the little horse for a steep price. Here is where paths cross with Lester and Sam. Les gets the brilliant idea, after eavesdropping, to kidnap the horse and garner some ransom money. After bungling an initial attempt, the dumb duo succeeds and sets up horsekeeping in an empty mansion nearby. (The owners must be out of towners). However, this is one smart pony. Soon, Sam and Lester are falling down garbage chutes, sliding on soap suds, and getting shut up in closets. Ragtime, who can talk to the audience, is having a ball. What is ahead? Will the kidnappers get their dough? Will the cops find the missing horse first? Will Dad still sell the horse anyway? This is a cute family movie, still another variation of Home Alone. This one, however, has hoof power in a darling, darling mini horse. Just watching the trained creature in action, opening doors, etc, will delight children of all ages. Long and Thomas play dumb pretty well and Cooper, from Liar Liar, is a great child performer. King, Kay Lenz, and a truly competent cast compliment the stars nicely. The sets, costumes, script and direction also have their strong points. No, this will never be an award winning movie. However, this Ragtime to Riches story will please most audiences very well for an evening's romp.

A film about the kidnapping of a tiny show pony that goes wrong of course. I bought this for the Shelley Long content alone. It was not a particularly funny film and I did find the family that owned the pony grated on me but it was all good clean cut fun. Shelley Long though a different kettle of fish. Hilarious tottering around on those high heeled shoes looking like she was going to fall over any minute. And that short mini skirt and black stocking and her change of hair every 5 minutes she was hilarious. When she sings my sweet potato pie with her side kick great. The best bit though is when she speaks with the phony Southern Accent you can't help enjoying it.

A real dog of a "dog and pony" show. Jay Thomas and Shelley Long -- funny as they can be -- come off as two sleazy cats trying to fight their way out of a paper bag of a movie. If it appears that most of the primary actors are upset over the kidnapping of their favorite pets, it is more likely they are grimacing in pain and embarrassment from signing on to this film. After release it was re-titled as "Barclay's Big Adventure". Barclay just happens to be the 8-year-old boy in the family of five who is most attached to the family's Shetland pony(Ragtime) and collie(Taylor). When the pets are stolen - get this - an army of thirty FBI agents are called in and confusion reigns. Barclay gets about ten minutes screen time. Three-year-olds will love this film.

The Adventures Of Ragtime Is So Funny, You Will Laugh Until You Get Sore. I Really Love That Movie. I purchased the DVD at the Rite Aid Store, It's from Sterling Home Video. It's a story about a miniature horse getting horse-napped by two crazy funny crooks, Sam & Lester, played by Jay Thomas & Shelley Long. The crooks get knocked down and beating' up by the horse Ragtime and does stuff to the crooks that you will never believe. It is so funny. The little boy Barkley Blue played by Justin Cooper, who is the owner of Ragtime goes on an adventure to with the family dog to rescue Ragtime. Barkley has an older brother Carter Blue and a older Sister Amy Blue who is fun for the movie also with the Mom and Dad. I love the restroom scene when Amy and Barkley is fighting over the bathroom and Barkley is holding his sisters leg. I also love the scene where Barkley and Amy is ask by the mom to wake their brother Carter, Barkley and Amy get some water in and glass and and pour's it out on carter's face and gets him all wet, and Carter gets so mad he run's after his older sister, and his younger brother. This movie has it all, every actor in the movie is funny. It has a lot of comical scene's in the movie. I know that if you see this movie The Adventures Of Ragtime, you will be really sore from laughing at this movie where it is so funny. If you don't watch this movie, you will be missing out on some wonderful and funny stuff and a great movie. Don't let The Adventures Of Ragtime pass you by. It is a wonderful movie for families to enjoy and they should make more movies like this one. I also learn from The Adventures Of Ragtime is that their is no profanity words of any kind in the movie, and that shows me that they can make movies without putting them words in movies. This movie rules. YOU'LL LOVE IT Almost as much as I do. One more thing, the horse and the dog talks in the movie.