Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002, VHS)

Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron is a charming eco-friendly anti-colonisation animated tale of the Wild West that wears its heart firmly on its sleeve. From the same studio that brought us Shrek, this is an animation the delights and disappoints in equal measure.

Firstly, the storyline. This is pretty basic from-slave-to-freedom stuff, with a standard love interest and some nice period detail. A young stallion who becomes leader of the herd is taken by the nasty soldiers and must find a way to free himself, also becoming locked in a battle of wills with the Colonel, who is much nastier than the soldiers. A native American Indian is also captured, and as the two plot to escape, a special bond forms between them. It's ok but a little too slow in places.

Next, the animation this is a strange mix. The simplistic 2D forms of the horses and humans look oddly out of place against the richly textured, 3D effect backgrounds. Being aimed as it is at young children, the producers would have probably been better off using the simpler style for the backgrounds too, but either way it looks odd having the conflicting styles for background and characters. Some of the background effects really do look gorgeous (not that it can compare to the real-life Grand Canyon, but it has a pretty good stab at it), and the water effects are impressively realistic, but this only serves to show up how simple the horses features are. An odd decision, and unfortunately one that doesn t really work.

The voice acting isn t quite up to scratch, either. It s not terrible or anything, but I found Matt Damon s voicing of Spirit the stallion rather unconvincing. The whole storyline centred around his strength, indomitable spirit and thirst for freedom, but I didn t feel that this came across in Damon s voice on more than a couple of occasions. The other voice actors were decent but no-one particularly stood out. Little-known actor Daniel Studi (son of Wes Studi of Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves, Geronimo: An American Legend, and.. um Street Fighter fame) acquits himself well as Little Creek, the Indian who befriends Spirit.

The music score by Hans Zimmer is well up to the job and Bryan Adams gives us some good songs, one or two of which could be classed as memorable.

One thing that many parents will like about this movie (especially in comparison to many Disney movies I ve heard parents grumbling about) is that no-one dies. It really is very kiddie-friendly and will have them laughing in quite a few places. Though the humour is oriented towards children, it will have adults giggling in places too. Overall, Spirit is a very sweet movie that younger children especially will enjoy. It doesn t match up to the best animated movies ever made by any means, but it will keep pre-teens happy and isn t so bad to watch if you re an adult, either.


Other Information

Spirit was directed by Kelly Ashbury (who also co-directed Shrek 2) and Lorna Cook. It was nice to see some women directing a (relatively) major movie, not enough seem to make it to the big time at the moment. Neither have had much directorially before or since but have been involved with the art and filmography of several important animated movies including the excellent Prince of Egypt.

Length: 83 minutes
Rating: U (UK) G (USA)