Bob Goldthwait is an acquired taste. If you grew up in the eighties, you know that scratchy, panicked voice anywhere. But even for the most dedicated fans of "Bobcat," the 1988 film Hot to Trot remains a bizarre outlier in a decade already defined by cocaine-fueled fever dreams and high-concept comedies that shouldn't have been greenlit. It’s a movie about a talking horse. Not a magical horse. Not a horse from a fairytale. Just a talking horse named Don who gives stock market tips.
Seriously.
Looking back at Hot to Trot, it’s easy to dismiss it as a Mr. Ed knockoff that arrived twenty years too late, but the reality is much stranger. The film follows Fred P. Chaney (Goldthwait), a social misfit who inherits a brokerage firm seat and a horse from his late mother. The twist? The horse talks. But only Fred can hear him. Except, unlike the wholesome 1950s sitcom vibes, this horse is a sarcastic, somewhat bitter animal voiced by the legendary John Candy. Candy wasn't even the first choice; he was brought in to replace Elliott Gould after the studio realized the original cut wasn't working. That's usually a bad sign.
The Chaos Behind the Scenes of Hot to Trot
Warner Bros. poured roughly $9 million into this thing. In 1988, that wasn't "small" money for a comedy. The production was, by most accounts, a mess. Michael Dinner directed it—a man who would later find massive success with The Wonder Years and Justified—but here, he was trying to wrangle a Bobcat Goldthwait who was at the peak of his "unhinged persona" era.
Goldthwait has been pretty vocal over the years about his regret regarding the project. He’s famously joked that he bought a house with the paycheck, but the movie itself is something he’d rather forget. It currently sits at a whopping 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. That is hard to do. You have to actively repel every single critic to hit zero. Even some of the worst movies usually have one guy in Ohio who thinks it's "zany fun for the whole family." Not Hot to Trot.
The replacement of Elliott Gould with John Candy is the most fascinating bit of trivia here. If you watch the movie closely, the lip-syncing is... let's call it "experimental." Because the horse (played by a gelding named Dr. Paul) was already filmed reacting to Gould's lines, Candy had to come in and try to match the rhythm of a horse's mouth that was already set in stone. Candy, being a pro, does his best, but you can hear the strain. He’s playing a horse that is smarter than every human in the room, yet he’s stuck in a plot about hostile corporate takeovers.
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A Plot That Makes No Sense (Even for the 80s)
Fred's step-father, played by the perpetually villainous Dabney Coleman, wants to cheat Fred out of his inheritance. It's a standard "evil businessman" trope. Coleman even sports these weird, prosthetic teeth for reasons that are never fully explained. He looks like he’s in pain the entire time. Maybe he was.
The core of the movie relies on Don the horse calling into the brokerage firm to place trades. Think about that. A horse using a telephone in 1988 to manipulate the stock market. It’s a satire of Reagan-era greed, I guess? Or maybe it’s just a movie where a horse wears sunglasses.
- The horse drinks beer.
- The horse watches television.
- The horse is obsessed with "high-yield" investments.
It’s actually kinda dark when you think about it. The horse is the only one with any agency. Fred is basically a puppet. The movie tries to bridge the gap between a kids' film and an adult comedy, and in doing so, it lands in this uncanny valley where nobody is quite sure who it’s for. Is it for the kids who like talking animals? Probably not, because there are jokes about corporate liquidation. Is it for adults? No, because it’s a movie about a talking horse.
Why the Critics Devoured It
Siskel and Ebert were particularly brutal. Gene Siskel called it one of the worst movies of the year, and Roger Ebert seemed genuinely confused why anyone would make it. The humor relies heavily on Goldthwait’s physical comedy—lots of screaming, falling over, and looking bewildered. If you love Bobcat, there’s a charm to it. It’s like watching a man have a nervous breakdown in real-time for 83 minutes.
But the industry was changing. By 1988, the "zany" comedy was starting to wear thin. Audiences wanted something a bit more grounded, or at least something with a coherent internal logic. Hot to Trot lacked both. It felt like a relic of 1984 dropped into a world that had moved on to Die Hard and A Fish Called Wanda.
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Honestly, the most impressive thing about the film is the animal training. Dr. Paul (the horse) had to do some complicated stuff. Getting a horse to look like it’s talking is one thing; getting it to look like it’s disappointed in its owner’s financial portfolio is another. The trainers used a combination of "lip-synch" tricks (usually placing a thin wire or a piece of food under the horse's lip) to get that flapping motion. It’s low-tech, and it shows.
The Dabney Coleman Factor
We have to talk about Dabney Coleman. He was the king of the 80s "jerk" boss. From 9 to 5 to WarGames, he had a niche. In Hot to Trot, he’s playing a character named Walter Sawyer. He plays it completely straight, which makes the absurdity of the horse stuff even weirder. There is a scene where he’s trying to intimidate Goldthwait while wearing those fake teeth, and it’s genuinely one of the most uncomfortable pieces of cinema from that decade.
Was it supposed to be funny? Yes. Is it? That depends on your tolerance for cringe. Coleman’s performance is a masterclass in "I’m getting paid, but I’m not happy about it."
The Legacy of a Box Office Bomb
The movie grossed about $6 million. When you factor in marketing and distribution, Warner Bros. lost a chunk of change. It was a theatrical dud. But then, something happened. Cable TV.
If you were a kid in the early 90s with a basic cable package, Hot to Trot was on all the time. It became one of those movies you watched because nothing else was on. HBO and Showtime cycled it constantly. Because of that, it has this weird, nostalgic "core" of fans who remember it not as a "bad movie," but as a fever dream they had on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
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It represents a specific moment in Hollywood history where "Talking Animal + Known Comedian" was seen as a guaranteed formula for success. It paved the way for—or perhaps warned people away from—future films like Gordy or Ed.
Technical Stats and Real-World Impact
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 26, 1988 |
| Director | Michael Dinner |
| Voice of Don | John Candy (Uncredited in some early promos) |
| Box Office | ~$6.5 Million |
| Budget | ~$9-10 Million |
While the film didn't win any Oscars, it did get a Razzie nomination. Bobcat Goldthwait was nominated for Worst Actor. He lost to Sylvester Stallone for Rambo III, which Goldthwait probably considers a win.
There's a lesson here for creators. Sometimes, a project can have all the "right" ingredients—a hit lead, a legendary voice actor, a proven trope—and still fail because it lacks a soul. Hot to Trot feels like it was designed by a committee that had never actually seen a horse or a comedy.
How to Watch It Now
If you’re feeling brave or just nostalgic, you can usually find it on digital rental platforms like Amazon or Vudu. It’s rarely on the big streamers like Netflix because, frankly, the licensing isn't worth the server space for them.
But if you do watch it, look past the bad lip-syncing. Look at it as a time capsule. It’s a glimpse into an era where a major studio would bet millions of dollars on a shouting man and a psychic horse.
- Check the credits: Look for the "Horse Consultant" credits; they are surprisingly extensive.
- Listen to Candy: Notice how his voice doesn't quite match the horse's energy. It’s a fascinating look at ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) gone wrong.
- The Wardrobe: The 1980s corporate attire is arguably the funniest part of the movie now.
The real takeaway? If a horse ever starts giving you stock tips, don't listen. Unless he's voiced by John Candy. Then you might want to at least hear him out.
Actionable Next Steps:
If you're a fan of 80s "bomb" cinema, your next move should be to track down the DVD—it often contains some unintentional comedy in the trailers. Alternatively, watch Goldthwait's later directorial work like World's Greatest Dad to see how much he evolved from the guy screaming at a horse to a genuinely brilliant satirist. If you really want to lean into the talking horse genre, go back and watch the original Mr. Ed episodes; you'll realize just how much Hot to Trot was trying (and failing) to modernize that specific brand of magic realism.