"I'll never forget the sound and the feeling of running together. The hoof beats were many, but our hearts were one."

SYNOPSIS: 

Spirit (Matt Damon) is an extraordinary wild stallion. One day, he is captured by humans. Unwilling to give up, Spirit constantly fights for his freedom.

My kids (aged 5 and 2) love this movie. I may have watched this movie more than 20 times because the kids keep wanting to see it. And that is not a complaint because I like it too. 

First of all, this is not Disney. Therefore, there are no talking, singing and dancing horses in it (thank God). I like the fact that the horses don't talk. Instead, the story is being told in the perspective of the main character, Spirit, which is a wild and awesome stallion and it is narrated by Matt Damon. The story is being told in a past tense. It's sort of like Spirit's reminiscence of his younger days. 

I love the story and Spirit's journey from being born and then becoming the leader and protector of the herd. After being captured by humans, it is so satisfying to see how he strives so much to be free. There are moments where he seems to break and lose spirit but one thing for sure, when the time comes, he kicks and bites and does everything in his power for the sake of freedom. This surely gives a good message for young ones. 

Some may argue that this is a western movie since it's set in those western times where the cavalry and Indians are constantly fighting for land. Whatever the genre is, I am glad that they include such strong human characters. The first human that captures the most attention is the strict and hard Colonel which is voiced by James Cromwell. He makes a fine example of how a good army colonel should be. The Colonel shows a rather unforgiving side of humans and therefore, the should be another character to balance it out. Can't be showing that humans are all bad, can we? That's why Little Creek is introduced. Little Creek is an Indian and unlike the Colonel, he is very respectable towards horses and consider them as friends rather than tools or transport. 

I mentioned that there is no singing horses in this movie. Yes, but the soundtrack is freakin' awesome. Yup, the soundtrack is one of the strong selling point of this movie. Many of the songs in the movie is written and performed by the legendary Brian Adams. My first born just can't help but to sing the one titled Get Off of My Back which is an awesome song. I like the song Here I Am more because I used to sing it whenever it's played on the radio when I was in secondary school. Besides Bryan Adams, another legend, Hans freakin' Zimmer produces the score! Seriously, the sounds in this movie is dynamite. 

The animation is stupendous. It's of course, in 2D given its year of production but I can say that it's beautifully crafted. The colours are vibrant and the characters are well designed as they are easily recognized and distinguished among each other. Their emotions are also easily comprehensible because of the good facial designs. Even the horses are given abilities to express themselves through facial expressions. 

All in all, this is a good animation for both kids and parents to enjoy. The animation is well crafted, the soundtrack is the bomb! and the story is good enough to interest everyone. This movie is easily one the my 10 ten most favorite animation of all time. 

4 out of 5 stars.