Reviews: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

[JoBlo]

JoBlo's 4/10 review of SPIRIT can be found here: http://www.joblo.com/spirit.htm

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[Strider]

Spirit (2002)

Rated G

Directors: Kelly Asbury & Lorna Cook

Narrated by Matt Damon and featuring the voices of James Cromwell and Daniel Studi.

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0166813/Courage.jpg

The film's plot focuses on horses, horses, horses, and more horses. That's all the flick is about. And oh yeah, I can not forget it's tells the tale about a relationship with a young boy and a horse. Ain't that just nice and peachy? Bah!

"Spirit" is one of those animated flicks where the only thing going for it is the animation. But hell, even the animation ain't that great. It's decent, but unimpressive.

There's nothing good to say about this flick. But there are many bad things to say about it though. First off, I didn't like how the so-called "villains" were portrayed. Hell, they were just good ol' Americans who wanted to capture horses to use them to ride into a war. What in the blue hell is so "villainous" about that? It's not like they had a damn choice. And horses were the only damn things they could ride in those days. There were no damn cars or motorcycles back then. I mean, c'mon, give me a break.

Another thing was the script. It was just so stupid. Ok fine, I know it's a kid's movie. I shouldn't really expect an oscar-caliber story. But would it hurt to just have a little drop of intelligence? Is that really going to kill anybody? Ah, I wish there were more kiddie flicks like "Toy Story", "Antz", and "Shrek".

As some of you may know, the horses in the flick do not speak. I was actually very surprised when I first heard this. I couldn't believe that no famous actors were going to be lending their voices. I was sorta interested to see how this would work. But after the first 30 seconds, the horses and their grunts get on your nerves.

And last but not least, I really depise every song that was sung by Bryan Adams. His songs were more unbearable to listen to than watching the film! They were really bad. It seemed like one of his songs would play like every 5 seconds!

While watching "Spirit", I looked at all the children that were in the audience. And they were having a blast! They screaming and jumping up and down with joy and excitement. There's no question about it, kids will adore this film. And maybe, just maybe, some adults will enjoy this film too. As for me, I'm sorry, but I hated this film. I don't enjoy most recent animated films. For me to enjoy them, they need to be funny and smart. And that's without mentioning a decent script. "Spirit" has none of this.

Running Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Grade: 1/10

Strider

[This message has been edited by Strider (edited 05-28-2002).]

[SpongeMike182]

Spirit:Stallion of the Cimarron 7/10

Dreamworks seems to be taking a break from computer animation to good old hand drawn animation. Hand drawn animation seems to be dying down in some studios. A great hand drawn film example would be Tarzan. That one had a lot of action and drawings. Spirit may not be a green ogre or a wooly Mammoth but at least it wasn't as dumb as Dinosaur.

Premise: This is the story of a mustang named Spirit who is the leader of a bunch of wild horses. One day his curiosity gets him caught by soldiers. The general tries to break the horse's spirit but no luck. While stuck at the fort, Spirit meets an indian named Little Creek. One day Little Creek is saved by Spirit and they both ride free. The horse learns that some people are nice and some are not.

I first thought Spirit was gonna be like Dinosaur (nice effects and talking dinosaurs). The horses don't even speak. The movie is narated by Matt Damon who plays the voice of Spirit. This is a good film. The animation is beautiful. The horses look like real horses. So far the film has done well at the box-office. I reccomend the Film. Spirit is a good movie that portrays the true life of a horse.

[Lillian Elms]

Not my kind of movie. An animation for kids only- a disappointment since Dreamworks' last animated feature, Shrek, was very witty and adults could enjoy it too.

I gave Spirit a 6/10!

[Eyesk]

JoBlo seems concerned that his non-affection for horses maybe hindered some admiration for the film... Well, JoBlo, maybe it is a good thing you don't like horses, because if you did (as I very much do), you may have disliked the film even more! In other words, I agree with you totally about this being a sappy, seemingly super-safe movie. As a horse-lover, it offends me that they'd were portrayed like this.
It is also cliche-ridden. I even consider myself a moderate liberal, and I found the excessive political correctness or the perfect Native Americans, and dumb, bad, or outright evil white males to be just too heavy-handed to the point of being offensive. How many cliches of the abuse of nature and the West and the Native Americans could they replay in this film? Plus the general characterizations and plot are deafeningly boring and un-inspired. Then there are the insipid Bryan Adams songs that just would not end. If it all wasn't so irritating, I would have fallen asleep. Anyone notice how the Cavalry officer was made to look like a General Custer? And the attendant over-simplified implication that Custer was this bad as well?
And there is a lot of oohing-and-aahing over the animation... give me a break. They decide to go with a passable animation style for most of the movie, and then they switch to a much more hyper-realistic and dramatic animation for the scene with the incident with the train on the the mountain (won't say more, so as not to give anything away, as predictable as it is) - it is like having a B&W movie, and then sticking in a slick color sequence in the middle of it - felt real out-of-place, and basically spoke to a lack of artistic integrity.
And like JoBlo observed about horses falling over waterfalls... the hero gets to violate the laws or physics and common sense, while pretty much everyone else has to abide by them. Doesn't anyone involved in this film know even some of the basics of suspense? It is by having the protagonists/antagonists on a relatively even playing field that we get get a modicum of suspense, but if they are going to rig the deck so heavily in favor the the protagonist (Spirit), then any suspense goes out the window. In summary, a boring, cliche-ridden, sappily politically correct, artisitically inconsistent, and in many ways offensive film. Did I mention that my eight-year-old daughter loved the film? Sigh. She's too young to recognize cliches.

[movieDUDE68686]

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)

I was very suprised. After reading JoBlo's review right before I saw the movie, I was not expecting anything good what-so-ever. But I was veeeeeeery suprised. The animation, and story was very original and unique. There were a few minor flaws; predictableness, and those two nasty scenes at the start of the film (mother giving birth, and spirit getting milk mustache; quite disturbing!) My little brother absoulutly loved it... I would not go that far, but it was still pretty good.

OOO / OOOO