'Felicity: An American Girl Adventure' When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, The WB. Starring: Shailene Woodley.

Felicity, the second American Girl doll come to life on the big screen, wears flowing Colonial petticoats and bonnets.

But the frilly 18th-century frocks cramp her tomboy style.

"Sometimes it's very tiresome to be a girl," our spunky heroine says during the days leading to the American Revolution. "You mustn't walk too quickly. You mustn't talk too loudly."

So when the 10-year-old Felicity Merriman (Shailene Woodley of "Jack & Bobby") discovers a beautiful spirited horse named Penny being abused by a cruel owner, she sheds her Colonial frocks and pulls on a pair of man's pants. Then the fiery redhead trespasses onto the mean old man's property to ride the horse -- and then leads Penny out of the pasture to freedom before she takes the horse home.

The simpatico between a spirited girl and her spirited horse has been an enduring theme in literature and movies. So all the pony-loving, doll-toting girls should lap up "Felicity: An American Girl Adventure" (8 p.m. Tuesday).

The WB movie is a worthy successor to "Samantha: An American Girl Holiday," the kind of sugar-sweet, G-rated movie without any sexual innuendo or risque dressing. There's nothing like Colonial attire for keeping a little girl modest.

Even though the movie appeals to all the little girls who paid about $87 for a historically accurate Felicity doll (book included), the movie doesn't overtly shill dolls. Girls with $20 garden-variety dolls will like the movie, too.

Felicity is more than a horse rescuer. She is also a patriot who is best friends with Elizabeth (Katie Henney), who comes from a Loyalist family. When Elizabeth's father is jailed, it strains their friendship -- until Felicity's shopkeeper father, Mr. Merriman (John Schneider) helps free him.

The tension of the Revolution also is dramatized when Mr. Merriman's apprentice, Ben (Kevin Zegers), flees the house temporarily to become a patriot fighter. Little Felicity convinces him to come home and not break the promise of his apprenticeship. The movie handles the conflict of the Revolution in a way that pre-teens can understand.

The movie also delicately tackles the big scary issue of death when Felicity's beloved grandfather dies and her mother (Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden) gets gravely ill.

Felicity seems to lose a little of her tomboy spunk later in the movie when she goes to a kind of finishing school and learns how to dance and hold a teacup. Initially she winces at "gentlewoman" training, but then seems to embrace it. But this seems more of a function of the script than Woodley's convincing acting.

She seems mature beyond her years when she shows kindness to the mean old man who used to own the horse. It's nice that the movie makers turned her into a principled Colonial girl, but did they have to turn her into a saint?

Even if this strikes a cynical adult as too syrupy-sweet, it's refreshing to have a too-nice role model.

Plus, what do adults know? Little girls with dolls in tow look adoringly at Felicity, on screen and off.