Spirit Untamed: Movie Review
This giveaway is sponsored by Dreamworks Animation. All ideas and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the programs which help me support my family!
We’ve been counting down the days for the new Spirit Untamed movie and it’s finally here! We were honored to be chosen by Dreamworks Animation to receive an early viewing of the film and I knew right away that we had to make it extra special! The PALS have been a huge part of our lives over the past three years – they eat with us, sleep with Hattie, go on every car trip and adventure (even the zoo) and have acquired more clothes and accessories than I have at this point. They are Hattie’s absolute favorite so I wanted to make this super fun with decorations, special horse cupcakes, horseshoe skewers with berries, and a few other surprises from Dreamworks Animation (click the button below to enter the giveaway). We also printed off a fun digital Activity Kit from Dreamworks (download one here) that Hattie loved working on before the movie!
LINKS: Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | #SpiritUntamed
we loved it!
While the story is very similar to the first episode and parts of the first season of the Spirit Riding Free show, the movie was different enough to stand alone while still including all of the most familiar characters. I’ve always wondered what happened to Milagro and the movie definitely gives us some answers but cushions the details in a way that won’t frighten or overwhelm younger viewers.
My daughter thought it was fun that Abigail played the ukelele and that we got to see Pru helping Lucky learn more about horses and training Spirit. I appreciate that the advice Pru gives her is actually really great advice about horses, which can be rare in kids’ horse movies. I also liked that there was a big focus on relationships with friends and also the growing relationship between Lucky and her dad. Hattie’s favorite part was the very end when the PALS are at the festival. She loved to see them all dancing and celebrating together. My favorite scene was when Lucky sneaks out and goes to visit the herd. She starts to earn their trust by rolling apples to all of them. It’s so adorable!
WHY THE PG RATING?
This was a bit of a surprise to me. It was given this rating for “adventure action”, but I think parents should absolutely use their best judgment when deciding whether or not to bring younger kids (7 and under). My daughter is four and has been watching the show since she was almost two. I would skip the intense scenes at first, but she has grown to like the excitement and drama of the PALS chasing bandits or running from bears. So, if your kids are OK with all of the episodes of the show, they’d probably be OK with the movie. My daughter loved the part when the baby horse sits on one of the bandit’s heads and still talks about how funny it was. I think kids tend to focus more on the silly parts, which was pretty constant throughout the movie. They did a good job of balancing the more intense parts with the humorous ones.
Movie Synopsis
An epic adventure about a headstrong girl longing for a place to belong who discovers a kindred spirit when her life intersects with a wild horse, Spirit Untamed is the next chapter in the beloved story from DreamWorks Animation.
Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) never really knew her late mother, Milagro Navarro (Eiza González, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), a fearless horse-riding stunt performer from Miradero, a small town on the edge of the wide-open frontier.
Like her mother, Lucky isn’t exactly a fan of rules and restrictions, which has caused her Aunt Cora (Academy Award® winner Julianne Moore) no small amount of worry. Lucky has grown up in an East Coast city under Cora’s watchful eye, but when Lucky presses her own luck with one too many risky escapades, Cora picks up stakes and moves them both back with Lucky’s father, Jim (Oscar® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal), in Miradero.
Lucky is decidedly unimpressed with the sleepy little town. She has a change of heart when she meets Spirit, a wild Mustang who shares her independent streak, and befriends two local horseback riders, Abigail Stone (Mckenna Grace, Captain Marvel) and Pru Granger (Marsai Martin, Little). Pru’s father, stable owner Al Granger (Emmy winner Andre Braugher, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine), is the best friend of Lucky’s father.
When a heartless horse wrangler (Emmy nominee Walton Goggins, FX’s Justified) and his team plan to capture Spirit and his herd and auction them off to a life of captivity and hard labor, Lucky enlists her new friends and bravely embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to rescue the horse who has given her freedom and a sense of purpose, and has helped Lucky discover a connection to her mother’s legacy and to her Mexican heritage that she never expected.
Spirit Untamed is the next chapter in DreamWorks Animation’s beloved franchise that began with the 2002 Oscar-nominated film Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron and includes an Emmy-winning TV series. The film is directed by Elaine Bogan (Netflix and DreamWorks Animation Television’s Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia) and is produced by Karen Foster (co-producer, How to Train Your Dragon). The film’s co-director is Ennio Torresan (head of story, The Boss Baby), and the film’s score is by composer Amie Doherty (Amazon’s Undone, DreamWorks Animation’s Marooned).
Genre: Animated Adventure
Cast: Isabela Merced, Julianne Moore, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Walton Goggins, Andre Braugher and Eiza González
Director: Elaine Bogan
Producer: Karen Foster
Enter to win!
To enter the Spirit Untamed giveaway, head over to my Instagram page and follow all of the rules listed there (follow, like, tag friends). The winner will be chosen at random on June 4th. Good luck!!!
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