Bichir's stouthearted portrayal provides the core of the show around which everything and everyone else orbits.

The sight of the stouthearted old warrior, and the cap hardly seeming enough to protect his bald head, filled Taran suddenly with sadness.

For older children and stouthearted adults, Lakewood boasted a large roller coaster that filled the air with the clacking of metal on wood and the delighted shrieks of its riders.

The essence of the London story is retained, with stouthearted Buck being annealed by adversity, overcoming brutality, confusion and loneliness and then responding to the kindness of Thornton to become the leader of the pack.

Call it a smallish horse adjacent the bigger, louder, richer Football Bowl Subdivision, but call it one of those stouthearted horses nonetheless.