Spirit (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts 16.2 extract: Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (2002)

Spirit is a classical tale about freedom, leadership and home that is energised by some terrific animation and a brilliant soundtrack provided by Bryan Adams. 

It cannot be understated just how intricate and expressive the characterisation is throughout this movie. The choice to only provide voices to the horses through V.O is brilliant as it forces a use of ingenious cinematic language and pure cinematic storytelling. And so it's the culmination of the art direction and cinematic direction that provide this movie an incredibly strong backbone as it explores, with a good dose of romanticism, the forceful nature of American imperialism in face of the free 'spirit' of nature. Whilst I wouldn't say that there's much profundity to be found in the subtext of this narrative as it is something we've seen time and time again, it does manage to utilise it masterfully to conjure that tremendous emotional momentum and punch. 

In the end, this is a film I saw when I was a kid and it has always stuck with me. To my relief it holds up and so I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it.