Spirit of a Child
Born into the wild Cimarron herd young Spirit grows in to a mighty stallion, protector of the young and the leader of others. But the West is being advanced upon by the white man and one day Spirit ends up not only captured but sold to the US Cavalry who attempt to break him. Unable to break Spirit's indomitable spirit it is a young Lakota Indian who saves him when he helps him escape before he is shot. Now living with the Indian's in their coral Spirit is treated with greater respect whilst finding the mare of his dreams. But with the railroad arriving in the West and the Indian's forced off their land life is never short of adventure for Spirit.
In the words of Murtaugh "I'm getting too old for this ....". I am sure there are many who love "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" but as a forty something male this did little for me other than to ironically remind me of back in the early 90s of when I had grown tired of watching animations. Now admittedly "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" was not made with me in mind, this is a movie clearly aimed at a much younger audience, probably a pre-teen audience, but even as a grown up I found little in this animation which aimed to entertain an adult forced to watch it with a child.
The thing is that technically "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" is beautiful, the artistry is fantastic and the simplicity of the story is good. In fact with little more than the occasional narration from Matt Damon the lack of voices for the animals is a risk which paid off. But still I found myself struggling to stay interested especially when we got a Bryan Adams song to fill in the gaps, sorry Mr. Adams but your many weeks in the charts thanks to "Anything I Do" was enough for me. As such I found myself starting to clock watch even before I was a third of the way in to it.
What this all boils down to is that "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" was definitely not for me and as an I adult found it devoid of anything to keep me entertained at the same time as a child. It is a shame as it is a beautiful looking animation with a simple storyline which could have evolved to work as a family movie rather than just a children's one.
