Considered one of the better (late) hand-drawn animations from DreamWorks (the hideous CGI of SHREK started the previous year), SPIRIT generated decent box-office, straight-to-tape sequels & computer games. Alas, its relative success tells us more about DreamWorks’ standards of achievement than the film’s. It’s all wild horses, sympathetic Lakota Native Americans and nasty U.S. Calvary in a post-Civil War West, told from an Equine POV. Likely ‘pitched’ as a naturalistic fable without dialogue for the horses or English from the Lakota, somebody got cold feet so the Indians speak English while lead horse Spirit narrates via incessant voice-over (a suspiciously articulate Matt Damon). After an idyllic prologue for Spirit & herd, our prize stallion is caught by horse-soldiers, refuses all mounts, tortured back at the fort, then escapes with a Young Brave. Taken to the Lakota camp, he woos a fetchin’ pinto, but before heading home, more bold adventures, played against fanciful Monument Valley backgrounds. (Where’s Road Runner & Coyote when you need ‘em?) By now, any stylistic consistency in action, drawing or storyline has devolved into absurdity: fashion-plate eyebrows for the horses, decoupling trains without opposable thumbs, the swimming skills of Johnny Weissmuller . . . where did our naturalistic fable go? Lost amongst wistful Brian Adams’ songs Phil Collins would have disowned. Or perhaps gone missing in the second-tier animation that can’t keep physical connection between foreground & background or get hoofs in synch with ground covered. Animated ‘naturalism’ can mean many things, from the Japanese watercolor backgrounds of BAMBI to the needle-sharp Serengeti grasslands of THE LION KING. But you’ve got to choose one style and stick to it. This one’s all over the place. The only consistent thing it does is pander.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: For a recent fanciful animated Western, one that works by holding to a consistent style, try RANGO/’11 (Gore Verbinsky; Johnny Depp).
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