Customer Reviews

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Widescreen)

5 star:		(102)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

My daughters ages 6 and 11 watch the movie frequently. The music and animation are wonderful and the story is good enough. What I detest in kids' animated films is the increasing use of character deaths and sadistic incomprehensible violence. My children cried on the way home after ICE AGE, especially my youngest, because they could't shake the sense of loss over the mastadon's family. Nemo's mother is killed in the first minutes of Saving Nemo. Couldn't he have just had a nervious Dad? Monster's Inc. has a little girl strapped to a machine that is going to suck the breath out of her. We see her terrified face and hear her screams. Why? These movies are not documentaries -- people had to make the choice to include these scenes. I cannot imagine what they were thinking.

Thankfully, Spirit has none of this disturbing content. There is conflict and separation but things come out ok. I would recommend it for purchase if you like good animation and/or if you have kids.

I always rent a movie for a week, to see if it's worth buying. My kids are 6 and 8 years old. I rented 2 movies on a Friday, and let them watch them as often as they wished (it was early in the year, and homework was light). By Monday they had watched Spirit 7 times. Monday afternoon, they watched it again with their grandmother. On Tuesday, I made them watch the other movie, which was a wash-out (I don't even remember what it was). You can guess what they watched Wednesday. I am definitely adding Spirit to our home video library. I am especially fond of the song "Here I am."

Spirit non deve mancare assolutamente nella videoteca di chiunque voglia insegnare ai propri figli i valori fondamentali della libertà. E se non si hanno figli una visione non guasta di certo anzi se ne può uscire sicuramente arricchiti. L'uomo ha in comune col cavallo la grande qualità di poter essere, se vuole, indomabile eppure nondimeno nel corso della vita sempre più spesso si è costretti ad abbassare la testa ed a cedere il passo al più forte. Spirit insegna che la forza di non essere sottomesso può essere più forte di qualunque violenza ed imposizione. Il team Dreamworks confeziona così un film politicamente ipercorretto dove, ed è sempre meno raro nella cinematografia statunitense, vengono ristabilite delle verità storiche addebitando ai bianchi la responsabilità della fine della civiltà nativa americana e dei disastri ambientali perpetrati sul territorio. E' da salutare con entusiasmo inoltre un film d'animazione che per una volta lascia agli animali le loro caratteristiche ed il loro linguaggio anche se ogni tanto si fa largo l'impressione che la voglia di antropomorfizzare i cavalli sia stata forzosamente soppressa. Tecnicamente ineccepibile il dvd, restano delle perplessità solo sulla versione italiana dei brani di Bryan Adams: Zucchero appare francamente fuori posto, specie nel brano conclusivo, dove appare chiaro che con la voce proprio "non ci arriva".

A decent animation, first ever to tell a story of a horse that doesn't talk. Worth buying.

My almost 3 yr old daughter LOVES this movie. We just started to let her watch movies and she loves Spirit. It's very enjoyable for Mommy and Daddy too. It's a really nice story, beautiful animation and the music is excellent. There's nothing too scary for young children to process and thankfully Mother horse doesn't die.

OK, so it is a wee bit on the corny side - horses are not able to do some of the things the horsey hero (Spirit) in this story is capable of doing; a horse with quite human-like intelligence. But, quite frankly, I didn't care. It was a great, fun story with a wonderful, feel good ending. The animation was beautiful, even breathtaking at times. It is a movie I would have liked to have seen on a big screen actually. I watched this movie with a 12-year old neighbour (it was her's, and she wanted me to see it; I think it was a sort of "I'm sorry" for having subjected me to the horrendous "8 Crazy Nights" the day before, lol). I was as enthralled as she was! I am not a Bryan Adams fan, but the music fit the story well. I personally wouldn't buy the sound track, but a Bryan Adams fan would enjoy it.

The only slightly annoying thing (probably just to adults) was the continuous whinnying. While this made sense since it was, after all, about horses, it did become a bit much at times. At least the horses didn't talk like humans. The animation and story more than made up for any of the longer whinnying scenes, however.

Most of the story was told in the eyes of the horses which were animated in wonderfully expressive ways. Every emotion was expressed successfully; bewilderment, fear, anger, sorrow, and more. A real tribute to the talent of the animators.

I am sure that no-one will regret purchasing this movie - it can be enjoyed by children and their parents alike.

My daughter, age 4, is what I consider to be almost borderline obsessive about horses. When she discovered Spirit, she was absolutely in love! There has not been a day since we purchased the DVD that she has not BEGGED to watch it. I'm not a huge fan of animated movies, but I have to say that this animation has done a pretty good job of making the horses real (aside from the wide range of facial expressions that they have!)... they don't talk to each other in words like in other animal films but are still able to convey mood and emotion in their own language. I think this movie has a lot of great messages and has truly captivated my daughter. The extras on the DVD version are pretty fun too... we practiced drawing spirit with the artist and colored him in.
The only problem... the knees on her pants are constantly needing patches with all the horseplay going on around in and around the house!

i looooooooooooooooooooove this movie!!! i read all those crazy reveiws about how "lame,boring,dumb ect.", dont beleive it! and someone said "not as bad as the lion king" what do you mean! the lion king is probaly one of the best movies ever made!!!

and to all the adult who coplain THIS IS NO ADULT MOVIE!

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is a visually beautiful story about Spirit, a wild mustang, who gets caught by cowboys. The story is about Spirit's struggle for freedom and through his struggle he meets several different characters and learns the lesson of freedom. Throughout the story Spirit is mute, which provides a feeling of authenticity. However, this is what makes the film a little sluggish, since it balances on a thin line between serious and comedic where there is almost no dialogue. The film offers a good moral cinematic experience through Spirits adventure, but fails in keep the audience's attention due to lack of staying on track.

I was prepared to be disappointed in this film. I am not normally a big fan of animated movies, especially those which depend on anthropomorphism (look it up!) to appeal to the kids. This does take the animal's point of view but it does not talk down to the audience, not even when Matt Damon does the voice of the main character. In fact, the story is told more through the non-intrusive music of Bryan Adams and the absolutely spectacular score of Hans Zimmer than it is through the voiceover. (Note: Adams and Zimmer were ripped off in not even being nominated for an Oscar in 2003. Ah well, Zimmer already has won for The Lion King, but I feel bad for Adams who deserved to win for Best Song.)
Look for stunning animation, some of which makes you wonder how they did it, even with computers to help them. Listen for great music. But most of all, feel a solid story that carries you from beginning to end without condescending to you. This one out-Disneys Disney. I did not hesitate to pick it up on DVD as soon as I could get a copy.