Barnes & Noble

One of the best animated films of 2002, Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron is a stirring western saga told not from the perspective of a feisty mustang. Matt Damon is the voice of the hero who grows "from colt to stallion, racing with the eagle, soaring with the wind." Spirit's idyllic life as the leader of his herd is shattered when the U.S. Army captures him, and the defiant horse finds himself locked in a battle of wills with the fort's stern Colonel (voiced by James Cromwell, the kindly farmer from Babe). Spirit refuses to be broken, and will let no man ride him until he meets a kindred soul, a Lakota brave named Little Creek. Things are better for Spirit on Little Creek's reservation, but the stallion's unquenchable longing for his home and herd lead him and the mare he loves to even greater adventures. Some of the film's bravura set pieces -- an eagle's flight over a majestic landscape that rivals the opening of The Lion King, a spectacular train wreck, and a cliff-leaping escape - will set the hearts of animation buffs and horse lovers galloping. Bryan Adams supplies power ballads full of empowering messages that underscore the G-rated film's politically correct tone, but Spirit does contain scenes of emotional upheaval and mistreatment that may disturb young foals. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Screenwriter John Fusco returns to the Western themes of his previous films Young Guns and Thunderheart with this animated children's adventure from Dreamworks. Matt Damon supplies the voice of Spirit, a wild Mustang stallion living free in the Old West of the late 19th century, where he's captured by human horse traders and sold to a cavalry regiment at a frontier outpost. There, a cruel colonel (voice of James Cromwell) nearly succeeds in breaking the willful horse, but not quite. Spirit escapes in the company of another captive, Little Creek (voice of Daniel Studi), a Native American youth that tries to possess the magnificent animal by more humane means, but Spirit refuses to bend to human will even when he makes the acquaintance of Little Creek's beautiful and fiercely loyal mare, Rain. After he saves Little Creek's life in an Army raid, Spirit believes that the gravely injured Rain has perished after a tumble over a waterfall. Despondent, the horse is captured again by humans, enslaved this time for work in a pack team on the transcontinental railroad. Undaunted by the tragedies that befall him, Spirit manages to escape for a reunion with Little Creek, Rain, and his long-lost brethren. Featuring songs by rock singer Bryan Adams, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron departs from other examples of its genre in that the horse protagonists do not speak or sing; only Spirit's voice is heard as voice-over narration. Karl Williams

Product Details

• UPC: 678149193923
• Source: DREAMWORKS VIDEO
• Time: 1:22:00