Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Blu-ray Movie Review

A spirited film.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 27, 2014

Inside every creature is a spirit that yearns to be free, to run wild without the chains of constraint, to live without the fear of captivity, the labor of slavery, and a forced, and false, feeling inferiority created by other, more physically powerful and capable creatures. When those things come, it's just as much that inner determination of that spirit and the force of that will as it is the outer gifts of strength and speed that determine one's fate. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron tells the story of one such free spirit forced into a life of hardship, its struggle to escape its unwarranted confines, and its quest to rediscover the magic of freedom, not only of bondage and labor but of free will and life as one chooses to live it. The 2002 animated film delivers on its promise of a heartwarming tale of courage against impossible odds, love between kindred spirits, and the positives that are a result of an ironclad determination to break free from captivity and prove to the world that freedom and victory are born of the heart and won in the spirit.

Showdown.

A young colt named Spirit enjoys a happy, healthy life with his mother and other creatures on the plains of the great American West. He grows into a powerful stallion and takes the reigns as his herd's leader. One day, he wanderers into a human camp. Trouble ensues. He's captured, though not without a fight, and ordered broken by a military officer known as "The Colonel" (voiced by James Cromwell). Spirit proves uncooperative, refusing to be broken or even remain calm through any part of the process. The Colonel orders the fussy horse tied to a post and deprived of food and water. He's soon joined by another captive, a human known as Little Creek (voiced by Daniel Studi). The two form a bond and plot an escape, but danger and overwhelming odds await them in their shared adventure.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron drifts away from the standard animation structure, leaving behind the cutesy talking animals of traditional animal-centric stories and instead builds its narrative almost entirely on feel, on movement, on music, and with only the occasional voiceover aid to nudge the story along, to define those infrequent emotions and feelings that wordless visual storytelling cannot fully describe. And the film is all the better for it. The ability to build a character and, indeed, a larger narrative around that character through only nontraditional visual narrative elements not only keeps the audience more engaged but better defines those more complex emotions in a way that empty, trite, recycled words cannot. The character, through a look or movement and with the aid of a de facto musical voice, creates a deeper, more richly defined, and identifiable heart and soul while also giving better shape to the inward and outward ebbs and flows of emotion that come with them. Richer relationships, greater complexities, more immediate consequences, more thoughtful reactions, and a more satisfying resolution are amongst the benefits to both the characters and the audience that explores the world and feels the emotions that permeate practically every frame. The animators and musicians have accomplished something of which they should be very proud, exposing the very core essence of the characters with a combination of the stroke of a pen and the pushing of a button, building a fully developed, soulful, relatable, lovable creature and the story surrounding it in a way that gets to the heart of the matter without the help -- and often the hindrance -- of traditional, genre conformist generic elements.

Matt Damon narrates the film, providing, in essence, the inner "voice" of the title character. He speaks infrequently and only when necessary to better set the stage or simply convey a crucial thought that will drive the coming shots, scenes, and sequences. Damon's narrative delivery doesn't quite seem to match the film's spirit or fit the character. It's a little flat and monotonous, lacking real feeling but certainly proving a serviceable companion to the larger story and emotional delivery. The words themselves, however, are beautifully written and strike the perfect balance between poetry and plot advancement. The entire thing, then -- those words, the core story, and the feelings both convey -- create a very touching whole in which narrative simplicity but complex under-workings come together in glorious harmony. The film builds around its emotions, allowing the action to come to them and disrupt them, only to better champion the character's ascendancy back from the bottom after a life on the top seen in the montage that follows Spirit from birth to capture as a fully grown stallion. What's more, the film is gorgeous, a beautiful animated rendition of the classic American West setting. It effortlessly blends together hand-drawn animation and digital elements into a seamlessly created world full of nearly as much wonder as the core story that unfolds inside of it.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron's 1080p transfer frequently looks gorgeous. The transfer is hindered only by some instances of uneven, jagged lines; pause the film at the 3:13 mark and see the green slope rise with an unnaturally sharp stair-step effect. That out of the way, however, the transfer looks terrific. It's vibrant and healthy, made primarily of earthen hues — brown terrain and Spirit's lighter, sandier yellow-brown coloring — but nevertheless showing impressive brilliance and stability. Flashes of bolder colors prove equally impressive, primarily blue army uniforms but also the red, white, and blue stripes on an American flag and green vegetation. Details are sharp and robust; the film benefits tremendously from the uptick in definition over its standard definition release. Clarity is striking, and the image enjoys a fair bit of depth and accuracy even in long distance shots of far-away terrain. Darker scenes sport good, even black levels. Despite one or two problem areas, this is, overall, a tremendous image from Paramount.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron rides onto Blu-ray with a quality Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation works well all around, but its biggest flaw is that it never seems in full command of its resources. Music and sound effects always seem just a tiny bit underpowered. Musical clarity satisfies, and it enjoys a richness of space but never truly dominates, never pulls the listener fully into the world, whether score or Bryan Adams' pop songs. Likewise, big sound effects, while not falling flat, seem to settle for simply "good." Whether a stampede of horses or a crashing locomotive, the track offers a lot of sound but never quite enough energy to go along with them. Still, such effects nicely fill up the listening area on all occasions. A few isolated action sound effects work well enough, such as a gunshot here and there. Atmospherics are very well implemented. Even something as simple as a very light background wind help to fully define the film's environments, and though they play low, pausing the film demonstrates just how truly immersive and mood critical yet in-film sonically invisible they can be. Dialogue does come through effortlessly and clearly from the center. All around, a very good track that's just a little bit of added effort away from reference quality excellence.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron contains the following supplemental features. Note that a DVD copy of the film is included in the case.

• Audio Commentary: Producer Mireille Soria and Directors Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook open the track with a discussion of the project's origins and move on to share technical details behind the film's creation, the animation process and building the characters and the world around them, the picture's novel approach to storytelling, the widescreen format and its benefits and challenges, the picture's external beauty and inward qualities, nonverbal communication by the characters, and plenty more. The track covers a lot of ground and covers it throughly. With optional English, Castilian Spanish, Dutch, French, German, and Latin American Spanish subtitles.
• Learn to Draw Spirit with James Baxter (SD, 13:48): The film's Supervising Animator guides viewers through the process of hand-drawing the character. It even presents a supply list.
• Animating Spirit (SD, 7:02): An interesting look at the film's dual elements, the blending of hand-drawn animation with digital elements.
• The Songs of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (SD, 9:41): A look behind the scenes into the film's music, including the contributions of Composer Hans Zimmer and Singer Bryan Adams.
• Storyboards (SD): Basic hand-drawn animated previews for Spirit's Capture (3:03), The Colonel Rides Spirit (6:05), Train Wreck (2:55), and Spirit and Little Creek Jump the Canyon (4:46). With optional filmmaker commentary.
• International Star Talent (SD, 2:31): A short look at the work of Matt Damon and Bryan Adams and recapturing the spirit of the original voice performances in international dubs.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron works on practically every level. It's an externally gorgeous film and a fully satisfying inward journey of one animal's unbreakable spirit, its bonds of friendship and trust, and its struggle to re-secure the freedom it was born to enjoy. The picture builds its narrative on minimal dialogue and none, save for a few choices instances of voiceover narration, for its title character. It's a film of beautiful simplicity, effortless harmony, and deep connections with its audience. In short, it's a triumph of its genre and an example for others of its kind to follow. DreamWorks' Blu-ray release of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron features excellent video, solid audio, and a fair assortment of DVD-era carryover extras. Highly recommended.