Screen Scene

“Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” Directed
by Kelly Ashbury, Lorna Cook Featuring Matt Damon, James Cromwell,
Daniel Studi

There’s nothing more entertaining than watching a movie
about a horse named Spirit. Wild horses are living free in the
unexplored territory of the American West when man makes his
unexpected appearance. Stumbling across a group of cavalry soldiers
sleeping around a campfire, Spirit is captured in an attempt to
protect his herd. He is then held captive while an evil cavalry
colonel (James Cromwell) attempts to break him, and he forms a
friendship with a Lakota Indian prisoner named Little Creek (Daniel
Studi). Filled with elaborate backgrounds, the scenes from
“Spirit” can be breathtaking, even though they’re
not real. Directors Kelly Ashbury and Lorna Cook did a superior job
in capturing the essence of freedom. The animation itself is high
quality and very impressive. But the main question is, why horses?
Well, following the trend established so well by other films,
animals are a failsafe way to get the audience emotional. The film
is a feel-good movie, one that may even be worthy of a box of
Kleenex, or at least a few sheets. The cheesiness is at times
overwhelming, as cartoons tend to be. And let’s not forget
the soft-rock Bryan Adams score ““ if the creators of
“Spirit” were looking for the sense of freedom that
“Spirit” so clearly tries to present, maybe Bryan Adams
wasn’t such a good idea. If a cheesy score was ever needed,
Bryan Adams would be the man to go to. And it looks like
that’s what Ashbury and Cook did. It’s almost kind of
nice to get away from all the current special-effects-laden hype of
“Star Wars” and “Spider-man.”
“Spirit,” though not that great, does have its kiddie
themes, and that does provide a relief. –

Kenny Chang