Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: May 24, 2002

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

52	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

William Arnold

It's an extraordinary feat of animation, possibly the most lovingly conceived, uncompromisingly executed and totally successful animated film since "The Lion King." Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

It's classic animation wedded to modern technology -- painted pictures that move in magical splendor.

Desson Thomson

The movie's big action scenes, at times, make you forget you're even watching animation. There's an in-your-face sequence involving a runaway, crashing train that will make you squirm in your seat trying to get out of the way. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

An animated fairy tale made with simple, elegant conviction. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The animators have re-created equine movement and behavior with uncanny verisimilitude. Read full review

Steven Rea

A cartoon that's truly cinematic in scope, and a story that's compelling and heartfelt - even if the heart belongs to a big, four-legged herbivore.

James Berardinelli

Those for whom Spirit was made will find this to be a thoroughly enjoyable production. As a "kids' movie", Spirit is a resounding success. Read full review

Ray Conlogue

Visually the film is a knockout. I'm not sure this will matter to the young adult audience, but the film is philosophically confusing. Read full review

Claudia Puig

A poetic and lovely tale, told as a silent picture with music and narration. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The film is short at 82 minutes, but surprisingly moving, and has a couple of really thrilling sequences. Read full review

Loren King

A welcome family film that extols noble values and offers first-class animation. Read full review

John Horn

For all its retro design, Spirit actually represents a delicate marriage of the hand and the computer.

Richard Schickel

It's a pretty, high-strung story, handsomely done in traditional animation (mostly by hand) that you can take the kids to without wincing. Read full review

Jami Bernard

Popcorn-buyers, beware: This is no "Shrek," with raucous adult humor sailing over the heads of wee ones. This is "Sesame Street"-level, with white hats, black hats and simple moral messages.

Chris Kaltenbach

Spirit lacks that essential emotional resonance, and suffers because of it.

Kenneth Turan

Despite its good intentions, Spirit is more self-conscious and uninspiring from a dramatic point of view than one might have wished. Still, whenever it threatens to get bogged down in earnest dramaturgy, a stirring visual sequence -- rouses us. Read full review

Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Rather exciting, rendered in a bright sunset palette and a mixture of expressive, boldly drawn traditional animation and fluid computer-generated imagery. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

The result is a mishmash that is sometimes moving, sometimes absurd and most of the time just oddly off balance. Read full review

David Sterritt

The action is mild enough for fairly young children, and grownups may enjoy its old-fashioned spirit. Read full review

Keith Phipps

It's handsomely mounted, and its heart seems in the right place, but that's not reason enough to put on a show. Read full review

Dave Kehr

As it stands, "Spirit" provides neither the profound human touch of the great Disney animation of the past, nor the dazzling, high-tech fun of present-day digital cartooning. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Spirit's narration comes to us courtesy of Matt Damon, who, having played a horse's ass in some of his earlier movies, perhaps thought it wise to inhabit the entire nag this time around. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Saddled with a sentimentally "sincere" subject and lacking the stylistic and humorous cachet of the recent computer-animated smashes. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Can barely limp to its final CinemaScope sunset shot. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

A boring, wincingly cute and nauseatingly politically correct cartoon guaranteed to drive anyone much over age 4 screaming from the theater. Read full review

Dennis Lim

Dreary adventure. Parents, be forewarned: No talking equines means more songs, and the viselike soundtrack might be someone's idea of a cruel joke: hoarse whisperer Bryan Adams. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels

Think "The Lion King" redone for horses, with fewer deliberate laughs, more inadvertent ones and stunningly trite songs by Bryan Adams. Read full review

Shawn Levy

The animation is dull, the thought is fuzzy, the storytelling is vague and the music just plain stinks. It's not "National Velvet," it's sure not "The Black Stallion," it's not even "Dances With Wolves." Read full review

New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky

It's an exceptionally dreary and overwrought bit of work, every bit as imperious as Katzenberg's "The Prince of Egypt" from 1998.