Spirit Untamed

Were it not for the fact that the voice cast includes some top tier voice talent like Isabela Merced (who just a couple years ago made a hilarious star-making turn in Dora and the Lost City of Gold), Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore, Spirit Untamed would probably be an innocuous animated film taking up space on Netflix.  Instead, it's getting a full theatrical run right as the summer is kicking off in the hope of roping in some very little kids looking for something to do.  Given how thin and unsatisfying the film is, kids would probably be better off doing something else, as would their accompanying parents.

The film is an adaptation of a streaming series (now in its 8th season) called Spirit: Riding Free, which itself is based on the 2002 Dreamworks animated feature, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.  I have never watched the show, and only have vague memories of the original movie, other than Matt Damon supplied the voice of the main horse, Spirit, and that there were a lot of forgettable songs by Bryan Adams in it.  Neither Damon nor Adams returned for this, as the horse doesn't talk this time, and Taylor Swift and other artists have taken over the pop soundtrack duties this time around.  The music remains forgettable, however, as does the movie itself.  It tells the story of a rebellious preteen girl named Lucky Prescott (voice by Isabela Merced) who causes some slapstick shenanigans with a squirrel during an upscale event, and is sent by her Aunt Cora (Julianne Moore) to live with Lucky's estranged father, Jim (Jake Gyllenhaal), out West in the small town of Miradero.  

Father and daughter have not seen one another since Lucky's mother, a stunt horse rider named Milagro (Eiza Gonzalez), died in an accident during a performance some ten years ago.  Since Jim hasn't been in touch with Lucky for years, he openly admits to Cora that he doesn't know what he's doing. (He remembers that Lucky liked strawberries when she was younger, so he decorates her room all in a strawberry-related theme.) As for the young girl, she at first wonders how she's going to get through this summer, when she happens to befriend two other girls her age, Pru (Marsai Martin) and Abigail (Mckenna Grace), who happen to know a lot about horses.  They help Lucky gain the trust of Spirit, a wild mustang who seems to share Lucky's independent and adventurous streak.  Together, the three friends will unravel the plot of an evil horse wrangler (Walton Goggins), who wants to capture Spirit and his herd, and sell them into forced hard labor.

Spirit Untamed is a very basic "girl power" story about a girl who comes to accept who she is, learns how much she is like her mother, hangs out with her new friends, and stops some bad guys in the process.  I'm aware that not much else is required for a movie aimed at the youngest viewers, but a little bit of genuine wit or some interesting characters would have gone a long way to helping any adults who might be watching get through this.  What we get here is pretty much straight-up fluff, and not even of the good variety.  Despite the top-flight cast (which also includes Andre Braugher as Pru's dad and Jim's best friend), they all seem to pretty much be treating this as a paycheck, and bring none of their genuine talents to their line readings.  Even the animation (which was not done by Dreamworks, but rather by an outside studio) seems a bit jerky and simplistic at times.

Movies like this serve a purpose, and help distract young children.  But even films with this goal should be better than what this gives.  There's no sense in the film's story or artistic style that the filmmakers were trying to make anything than a time-waster here.  It's cinematic junk food that yes, keeps kids preoccupied, but gives them no inspiration like great animation can.

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