A Horse is a Horse Of Course Of Course

Today (July 15th) is National I Love Horses Day.  And who doesn't love horses, at least theoretically.  I like horses even though I have never ridden one, or even met one.  So, I guess it is more the idea of horses I like.  So to celebrate (without having any actual horses near by) I watched a couple of movies about horses.  Well, one horse in particular.

Spirt: Stallion of the Cimarron starring Matt Damon

A wild stallion is caught but resists all efforts to train or break him and fights to return to his family and the wild.

First of all, I am glad the horses don't talk.  The narration is done by Spirit, the horse, (and I almost wish they left that out too) but the horses themselves don't talk.  They are, however, very expressive.  With a few neighs and some facial expressions (that I'm pretty sure real horses couldn't make) they communicate with each other and the audience just fine without words.   I like the animation, especially the sweeping landscapes.  And Spirit is a character you want to root for.  I thought the human characters were a little too black and white.  The colonel was too evil and Little Creek a little too perfect and understanding.  And the romance between horses was a little eye rolling for me but children probably wouldn't feel the same way.  There were a couple of improbable (if not impossible) things, but it is a movie so that is okay in my book.  There are a few moments where Spirit is being mistreated that might upset small children but other than that it is appropriate for most audiences.  It is a fun story with moments of excitement and couple of chuckles and a hopeful ending.

Spirit Untamed starring Isabela Merced

Lucky has to move from the city to a small frontier town.  She feels out of place and lost until she befriends a wild mustang.

This is not a sequel to Spirt: Stallion of the Cimarron.  The horse looks the same but it is not a continuation of that story, it is a completely new story.  That being said.  Lucky was a little too rebellious for me.  She does a million things her father tells her not to do and then talks her friends into running off and doing some very dangerous stuff.  I think we are supposed to admire her spirit and her desire to do what is right but she is still a child who is riding a horse that was never broken, through dangerous territory she is unfamiliar with to take on a gang of adult bad guys.  I don't think that should be put forth as a good thing.  The story is rather predictable in a lot of ways as well.  The whole thing just felt a little flat to me.  It felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon than it did a feature length film.  I'm not sorry that I watched it but I would not have missed much if I hadn't watched it either.