Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (Animated) (DVD)

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
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I'm not a big fan of animated movies, so when my sister bought back a copy of the latest DreamWorks movie a good few years ago now, I was very unimpressed. I initially tried to think of every excuse going, I mean classics like Beauty and the Beast and Lady and the Tramp are fine, but a film about talking horses? Anyway, she talked me into it, and hence my review begins….
...Obviously the actors would look a bit silly thrown into an animated movie so just their voices were used. The star of the movie (Spirit the mustang stallion) is voiced by Matt Damon who tells the tale brilliantly, I never once doubted that the horse Spirit was talking to me (ok, maybe exaggerating a little there but he was good).

Other actors voices you may recognise include James Cromwell as the Colonel and Daniel Studi as Little ... more

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
****************************

I'm not a big fan of animated movies, so when my sister bought back a copy of the latest DreamWorks movie a good few years ago now, I was very unimpressed. I initially tried to think of every excuse going, I mean classics like Beauty and the Beast and Lady and the Tramp are fine, but a film about talking horses? Anyway, she talked me into it, and hence my review begins….

The actors….voices
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Obviously the actors would look a bit silly thrown into an animated movie so just their voices were used. The star of the movie (Spirit the mustang stallion) is voiced by Matt Damon who tells the tale brilliantly, I never once doubted that the horse Spirit was talking to me (ok, maybe exaggerating a little there but he was good).

Other actors voices you may recognise include James Cromwell as the Colonel and Daniel Studi as Little Creek.

The characters
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The main character in the film is of course, Spirit himself, an attractive dun mustang stallion! Spirit takes his role as leader of the herd seriously and takes the responsibility of looking after the whole herd.

Little Creek (voiced by Daniel Studi) is a young Lakota Indian who gets captured around the same time as Spirit. Together they manage to escape, only for Little Creek to take Spirit back with him - Spirit isn't too happy at this but he soon develops a good friendship with Little Creek.

Rain - A female paint mare owned by Little Creek who is shown throughout the film trying to get Spirit to work with rather than against Little Creek and his people.

The Colonel - The man responsible for Spirit's capture, who soon becomes obsessed with making sure Spirit cannot escape and be free again.

The plot
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The film begins by showing you Spirits mum in labour which is an original start if nothing else! The first few minutes show Spirit as a young colt getting into mischief and annoying various members of his herd (and getting his mother into trouble!) The film doesn't show Spirit as a foal for very long at all, and within minutes of the film beginning he is shown as the stallion and leader of the herd.

The plot is based around Spirit who ventures into the unknown and ends up getting captured. The Colonel becomes increasingly obsessed with taming (or 'breaking') the wild mustang, using a variety of different methods to do so. After an eventful few days tied up to a post without food or water in the Colonels territory, Spirit manages to escape with the help of a Lakota named Little Creek….only to be then taken back with Little Creek instead.

The story follows Spirit on his fight to remain free and untamed and his encounters with Little Creek and his horses (in particular a mare named Rain), and his constant escapes and captures by different people whilst trying to return to his homeland and look after his mother and herd.

The narration
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I was surprised to learn that the horses in this film didn't actually talk! The parts needed to be explained, for example the beginning of the story where Spirit is explaining the situation, are narrated as if the horse is speaking or thinking them by Matt Damon. The majority of the 'talking' used by the horses is actually horse noises which were recorded from real animals and fitted in brilliantly to make the story really come alive.

The strange thing about the movie is I didn't even realise that the horses didn't speak! When I read about this in a review in a magazine a couple of months after first watching it, I was really taken by surprise! I don't know if that was just me getting too wrapped up in the film and not paying enough attention to detail but personally I think that the way they made the film was very cleverly done so that enough information and detail was given for you to know what was going on without spoiling the magic by making the horses talk.

The soundtrack
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The soundtrack to this move is pretty good. The entire soundtrack is by Bryan Adams, with his songs being played throughout the film. These include 'I will always return' which is played at the very beginning of the film, and 'Here I am', which is played at the end - these songs sound surprisingly similar, I had trouble differentiating between the two! 'Get off my back' is a more lively and upbeat song played in the perfect time during the film (when Spirit is trying to get countless men trying to break him in off of his back…).

There are in all fifteen songs in the soundtrack, the others I haven't mentioned aren't really very memorable and didn't play too much of a part in the film, although an instrumental song 'Rain' I found very fitting and good for the film.

Whilst I thought the soundtrack fitted the film very well and made the film more enjoyable to watch, I don't think any of the songs were of outstandingly good quality or originality and I couldn't see them ever becoming too much of a hit without the movie itself.

DVD Extras
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The usual commentary from the filmmakers is included as an extra, to be honest I rarely watch these all the way through, I had a quick watch of it and it was pretty uninteresting, although if you are into the way animations are made perhaps worth a watch? Sure it wouldn't entertain younger viewers though!

Music section with information on the soundtrack and in particular Bryan Adams, nice little extra, averagely watch-able but nothing that hasn't been done before.

A 'learning to draw' section, obviously aimed at children where a talk is given on how to draw animations like in the movie, original content which I thought was a nice idea but still not overly exciting.

Other usual extras were included including cast and crew biographies. Worth a watch if you've got time to kill but not something that you'll go crazy over.

Price
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Now the film is a few years old you can pick it up for a bargain price in a variety of places - £6.49 from Asda, and from around £4 on eBay including postage!

The Verdict
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I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. What I thought would be another cheesy animated movie that had been done hundreds of times before turned out to be something quite original, witty and captivating.

The soundtrack of the film fits it perfectly, and on the few occasions that I do hear one of the Bryan Adams songs played in the movie out and about I'm instantly reminded of the film ("maybe I should watch it again..").

The animation of this film was in my opinion perfect. The landscapes/scenery looked so real, well as real as animations can look. To be honest you really have to watch it to understand what I'm talking about, so buy it - now!

A film has to be good for me to want to watch it for a second time but this is one of the few that I can watch regularly without wanting to rip it out of the machine and throw it out of the window. When a babysitting charge of mine (and there are many - I have a big family!) suggests watching a movie, this is one I always suggest and kids really love it! Ok, it's not a film that's going to have you guessing what the ending is, or wondering what might happen next but it's fun and easy to watch and overall a good way to kill an hour and a half or so.
 

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