SPIRIT UNTAMED:
CG-ANIMATED FOLLOW-UP CAN’T QUITE RECAPTURE THE SAME “SPIRIT” AS ITS HAND-DRAWN PREDECESSOR!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: ** out of 4
UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
Spirit and Lucky in Spirit Untamed
A young girl befriends a wild stallion in Spirit Untamed, the latest film from DreamWorks Animation and follow-up/spin-off to the 2002 hand-drawn animated feature, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. This is an interesting situation here, we have a computer-animated sequel or spin-off to a movie that was traditionally animated with ink and paint as one of the few hand-drawn animated films from DreamWorks with the others being The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
I actually revisited the original film in preparation for this review which was my first time watching it since its theatrical release almost 20 years ago and I have to say, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron holds up much better than I thought. I remembered liking it okay as a kid but never really thought about it after seeing it, now upon watching it again I come to appreciate the more laidback tone, the lack of talking animals and reliance on a few narrations by Matt Damon and the horses’ facial expressions which I forgot how brilliantly animated they were, and the connection between humans and animals a lot more, not to mention the animation is still gorgeous (I really miss seeing animation like this on the big screen!) and Hans Zimmer’s musical score is incredible, in my opinion the first Spirit is an underrated DreamWorks classic.
Despite not being talked about as often as other DreamWorks films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, or How to Train Your Dragon, people still remember Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron as it eventually led to an animated series on Netflix called Spirit: Riding Free which I’ve never seen so I’m unsure if this movie is tied to the original film or the TV series…or if it’s an entirely different beast altogether. Anyway, now we get to Spirit Untamed which upon hearing the news of it I had no idea what to expect because it’s been nearly 20 years since the first film so why are we making a sequel now let alone a CG one? Nevertheless, I was still open to the idea because it’s a DreamWorks property that doesn’t get much attention so does it capture the “Spirit” of the original? Nope, if anything it just went in one ear and out the other.
Spirit Untamed isn’t horrible and it will likely entertain young viewers, but it’s a very bland and uninspired film especially for a follow-up to a movie that was a huge risk at the time, that rehashes several tired clichés from other animated kids’ movies, heavy focus on its human characters unlike its predecessor that again we’ve seen in other movies, and the drama or connection between human and animal isn’t nearly as powerful as in the first film.
The film follows a young girl named Lucky Prescott (voiced by Isabela Merced-Transformers: The Last Knight, Instant Family, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) who moves to the rural community of Miradero to live with her widowed father, Jim (voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal-Prisoners, Nightcrawler, Spider-Man: Far From Home). While there, Lucky meets a wild mustang named Spirit and she immediately starts to bond with him, but when a group of horse wranglers plan to capture Spirit and his herd and auction them off to a life of captivity and hard labor, Lucky, Spirit, and Lucky’s newfound friends, Pru (voiced by Marsai Martin-Black-ish, Little, PAW Patrol: The Movie) and Abigail (voiced by Mckenna Grace-Crash & Berstein, Fuller House, The Haunting of Hill House) must ride off to stop them and save Spirit’s family.
The film also features the voices of Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights, Crazy Stupid Love, Still Alice) as Lucky’s aunt, Cora Prescott, Walton Goggins (Lincoln, Tomb Raider (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Hendricks, Eiza González (Baby Driver, Alita: Battle Angel, Godzilla VS Kong) as Lucky’s late mother and famous horse rider, Milagro, and Andre Braugher (Glory, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, BoJack Horseman) as Pru’s father, Al.
Overall, Spirit Untamed is a perfectly harmless and inoffensive animated film that may entertain young viewers, but it’s also a serious downgrade from its predecessor. This film takes one of DreamWorks’ boldest and most mature films (Despite the first film being rated G) and turned it into a tired and standard animated movie that only the very young at heart may find some enjoyment out of.
Yes, the horses still don’t talk in this movie, but unlike the first film where it was a mostly serious movie with very little dialogue and only a few human characters, this one is bombarded with human characters and has a much lighter and goofier tone that it’s completely pointless in comparing it to the first film and just becomes another disposable children’s movie.
I will say, even though I prefer the hand-drawn animation in the first film, the CG-animation in this is very good and has a lot of nice colors and designs, some of the scenes where Lucky is bonding with Spirit are done well, and at times I got a few chuckles. But that’s about it in terms of aspects I liked in this film.
If you got little kids who want to see it then it’s perfectly fine, it won’t offend anyone nor is it even close to being one of the worst animated or kids’ movies. Everyone else should just stick with the original film, it’s of much better quality, has animation that still holds up today, and it took its audience seriously which is something this film did not do.
I think Jeremy Jahns says it best “It’s a movie I’m not gonna remember in T-Minus 1 Day! Yep, already forgot!” and that is exactly what happened to me with this movie. I acknowledged I watched it but when I wake up tomorrow morning I’ll be like “Did I go see a movie yesterday or something?”.
But that’s what happens when your Spirit film doesn’t capture the “Spirit” of what makes it good.
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