Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (UK)

What started with an unbelievable opening scene turned out to be one of the weakest animated features I`ve seen recently.
The movie tells the story of a stallion loosing its freedom and gaining it once again. It describes in detail just how bad people have treated (and still treat) animals. Younger audiences might find the movie too emotional while the older viewers could be slightly bored, since the script is, in two words, rather boring.
The video transfer is superb. There are no compression signs and the colors are nicely saturated. The animation is a mixture of 2D and 3D and is completely seamless. The opening scene is one of the most impressive pieces of animation I`ve ever seen with impossible camera angles, pans and a superb combination of 2D and 3D animation.
The DD 5.1 soundtrack is very good. The surrounds are used throughout the movie and the channel separation is great. The disc also contains very nice DD 5.1 soundtracks in Hebrew, Hungarian and Icelandic.
One thing that makes the movie a bit irritating is Brian Adams` songs - there are just too many of those. Enough is enough, Brian.
The menus are beautifully animated with sound.
The extras include a commentary, a behind the scenes look with some explanations about the animation and the international crew , 4 storyboards with audio narration, a drawing class and extensive DVD-ROM content (games, interactive movie, etc.).
Bottom line, the creators of Shrek brought us yet another visual and audio masterpiece. However, they forgot to include a script-to-go with this movie. Visually stunning, the lack of a decent script (and almost no dialogue at all) make this movie a rent-once-and-forget movie.

One of the finest animated movies ever. This is a superb piece of animation by Dreamworks that sadly was overlooked by many at the box office. Hopefully, now with a great dvd release, people will become more away. The story of Spirit, a stallion in the old west. He is happy with his herd and leads a good life until one day he is captured by cruel white settlers. The story is emotional and you cant help but feel for the poor horse. The story moves at a good pace and though it has little dialogue, the movie has a lot to tell in terms of content.

The picture is pin sharp and the animation is beautiful. The scenery recreated is fantastic. No signs of any grain or artefacts at all. A near perfect transfer. As good as any Disney dvd.

The sound is quite superb. Dialogue is loud and clear and overall this is a good DD 5.1. The soundtrack is mostly done by Bryan Adams and the songs are quite good. In fact, the do alot of the story telling as there is not that much dialogue. The tunes are quite catchy.

There are loads of extras on this packed disc. Directors commentary is just your standard commentary that I only listened to in certain places but is decent. There is a music featurette which looks at the importance of the music to the movie. A feature on the animation process of the movie was quite interesting. For the kids, there are a few games and a how to draw spirit feature. A sound set of extras.