SPIRIT UNTAMED – Review

With the kiddos finally out of school (unless they were still “splitting the time” online and in-person), the studios are actually releasing some “child-friendly” fare right into the gradually re-opening multiplexes. Not a big superhero blockbuster, but an animated adventure arrives this post-holiday weekend. Is it something new from the “mouse house”, or its sister company, the recent Oscar-winner Pixar? Well, this is from one of their biggest rivals, the “studio that SHREK built”, Dreamworks Animation. And it’s not exactly new, but more of an “inspired by” than a sequel or franchise entry. It all goes back to a “2D’ (or “classic cell/drawn”) feature from nearly twenty years ago. That feature spawned a “3D’, or “CGI/computer”, streaming series on Netflix. But things have come full circle (much like a corral) as the property returns to theatres, though still “computer-rendered”, with (cue the whinny) SPIRIT UNTAMED. Giddyup!

Now, jes’ you hold yer’ hosses’! This tale starts with a flashback, sometime in the late 1800s. In the frontier town of Miradero, everyone gathers for the big annual rodeo celebration. The highlight is a performance by the amazing rider/acrobat Milagro Novarro-Prescott. Her biggest fans in the adoring audience are her husband Jim and their toddler daughter that everyone calls “Lucky”.Oh, but luck is not with her that fateful day, as a stunt while perched atop a beautiful showhorse goes horribly wrong. Fortunately Lucky is too little to understand the tragedy, while her papa is consumed with sadness. So sad, that Lucky is sent off to live with his older sister Cora (Julianne Moore) in the Eastern US mansion of her grandpa’. But as Lucky grows into a pre-teen, her mother’s rebellious nature comes to the fore (she wrecks a big political banquet). It’s then decided that Lucky should reunite with her Daddy, so Aunt Cora accompanies her on a west-bound train. It’s there that Lucky first sees the beautiful Spirit, leading a group of wild horses running alongside the locomotive. Unfortunately, the leader of a group of no-good varmits’, the brutal Hendricks (Walton Goggins), also sees the stallion and hatches a plan to capture the herd and sell them to finance their next big “job”.. The father and child reunion is strained when Lucky tells Jim (Jake Gyllenhaal) that she wants to find Spirit. Fearing that she will suffer the same fate as her mama, he forbids it. But when Hendricks snares Spirit and holds him at a local stable, Lucky, with her new pals Pru (Marsai Martin) and Abigal (McKenna Grace), tries to free him and eventually protect all the wild horses from the evil outlaws.

This simple story is elevated by the vocal casting of several screen (big and small) veterans. And there’s even an Oscar winner, though Ms. Moore’s Cora is mainly there for comic relief, an uptight starched shirt that will take a tumble into the water trough (among many indignities). But Moore gives it her best, though she deserves something more interesting than slapstick peacemaker in the household. Gyllenhaal voices the head of the household and brings haunted compassion to the morose man in need of some fun. And that comes in the form of Lucky, played by relative newcomer Isabella Merced who projects a bouncy can-do attitude, adding to her character’s empathy and fearlessness, a young lady who’s much more than a “damsel in distress”. The cause of much of that drama and disaster is the sinister Goggins, who makes Hendricks an often charming rattlesnake (you never turn your back on him) who oozes civility when cozying up to Cora, but shows her true colors to his cronies. Another great vet, though sadly underused here is Andre Braugher as the stable owner, and Pru’s dad, who offers a friendly shoulder, and good advice, to Jim.

Directors Elaine Bogan and Ennio Torresan give this childhood wild west fantasy a nice glossy, candy-colored sheen, ready-made for the retail toy shelves. I can see the rows of Spirits, his caramel coat perfectly balanced with patches of white. And nearby the kid characters with slightly oversized noggins illuminated by wide eyes (the three young girls and annoying, wanna-be comic relief kid brother Snips with tiny donkey). But unlike rival Disney/Pixar, and even the other Dreamworks franchises, there’s just not enough emotional depth or conflict to engage audiences apart from the “pre-K’ set (guessing this may be the first theatre experience for many wee ones). Sure, there are disagreements, but nearly everyone is “nice”, which helps us appreciate the Hendricks gang, their character design filled with sharp angles and beady eyes, a contrast to the smooth, soft Prescotts and company. This is really a “mild” rather than wild west with the town of Miradero more of a pristine theme park (exit through that gift shop, natch’). The story hits all the correct “girl power” buttons, but there’s little for that coveted “all-ages crowd”. At least Spirit doesn’t quickly submit to Lucky, forsaking his “wild side” to hasten the plot. My mind drifted often, thinking about Lisa Simpson sitting in the front row of the Springfield Aztec for multiple showings. Now if she made the trio a quartet, well, then you’d have something. I’m certainly not the target audience, but beginning filmgoers deserve something more engaging than the cotton-candy fluff of SPIRIT UNTAMED. Whoa, dismount!

1.5 Out of 4

SPIRIT UNTAMED is now playing in select theatres everywhere