Spirit Untamed


Spirit Untamed is a 2021 American animated Western musical comedy adventure film directed by Elaine Bogan and written by Aury Wallington and Kristin Hahn. The second theatrical film of the Spirit franchise, it is a soft reboot of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and is based on characters from Netflix spin-off series, Spirit Riding Free.
With the voices of Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Julianne Moore, Walton Goggins, and Andre Braugher, the film is about a young girl named Fortuna "Lucky" Prescott who moves to the small rural community of Miradero, where she meets the titular wild kiger mustang. As the son of Spirit and Rain from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, she names the horse "Spirit" after his father, and Lucky immediately begins to bond with him. The film was announced to be in development in October 2019, and production was done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was dedicated to the memory of Kelly Asbury, the co-director of the original Spirit film, who died on June 26, 2020.
Spirit Untamed was theatrically released in the United States on June 4, 2021, by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics who deemed the film inferior to the original and unnecessary, though its animation and humor was praised. The film underperformed at the box-office, grossing over $42 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million, making it both DreamWorks Animation's cheapest and lowest-grossing film to date.

Plot

In the early 1900s in the Wild West, Milagro Navarro-Prescott performs her trademark act in the circus until she falls from a horse during one of her performances and dies. Years later, her young daughter, Fortuna "Lucky" Esperanza Navarro-Prescott, has been living with her aunt Cora and grandfather James in a city on the East Coast. However, after Lucky lets a flying squirrel in their house and ruins her grandfather's campaign party, she and Cora head to the western town of Miradero, where they will stay with Lucky's father Jim, whom Lucky has not known after the incident with Milagro, for the summer. On the train over, Lucky notices a kiger mustang running with his herd and goes to the back of the train to meet him. Upon arriving in Miradero, the pair meets local young riders Pru Granger, and Abigail Stone.
The next day, Lucky goes to a corral where she sees the same horse from before. A man named Hendricks is trying to break the horse and treating it abusively. Lucky tells Jim and Cora about the horse, thinking he can be her new friend, but Jim does not want Lucky to go near the horses after what happened to Milagro. Nonetheless, Pru and Abigail help Lucky win over the trust of the horse, whom she names Spirit. After a while, Spirit trusts Lucky enough to eat an apple she offers him and allows her to pet him, sealing their bond.
Lucky attempts to ride Spirit, but he escapes from the corral and runs away. Lucky is saved by Pru and Abigail after almost falling off a cliff at the canyon, but she falls into the water and dies and is still alive, but wounded. Jim finds and reprimands Lucky for disobeying him and warns her for being killed and hurt as well by Spirit just like Milagro. They go home arguing, making Lucky think he has gave up on her as she heard he was sending her back to her grandfather's campaign house in the city with Cora and never return to Miradreo and never see Pru and Abigail again, but Lucky refuses. She sneaks out at night through the forest where she finds Spirit and his herd together, but is interrupted by Hendricks and his men, who capture all the horses but Spirit and take them in with a stolen train. Knowing Hendricks and his men are wranglers, who are taking the horses to a boat to be auctioned and worked to death, Lucky agrees to help Spirit rescue his herd. She enlists Pru and Abigail with their horses to embark on a journey to try and cut the wranglers off on their path by beating them to a water depot located beyond a summit called Heck Mountain. During the trip, Lucky builds up her relationship with Spirit and becomes good friends with Pru and Abigail as they travel.
The girls reach the water depot the night before the wranglers are set to arrive, but Lucky wakes up the next day, realizing the wranglers made it earlier than expected. Spirit desperately attempts to save his herd on his own, but gets taken in by the wranglers. Determined to save Spirit, Lucky and her friends follow the train to the docks, where the wranglers are boarding the horses onto the boat. The girls arrive too late to stop the boat from leaving, but they manage to save Spirit. Lucky and Spirit get on board by leaping off the docks just like Milagro leaping off with her horse, freeing the other horses, and subduing the wranglers, with Spirit knocking Hendricks off the boat. Jim, Cora, and Al show up on a fast steam train and arrest Hendricks and the other wranglers.
On their way back to Miradero, the girls travel to a field in the middle of the wilderness, and Lucky lets Spirit go, saying that he needs to stay with his herd. When she returns home, Lucky and Cora initially plan to return to the city, but after Lucky bonds with Jim at a rodeo, she decides instead to stay in Miradero with him and her friends, as Spirit is seen running through the fields with his herd.

Voice cast

  • Isabela Merced as Fortuna "Lucky" Esperanza Navarro-Prescott, Milagro and Jim's daughter, Cora's niece, and Pru and Abigail's friend.
  • * Bridget Hoffman voices Baby Lucky
  • Marsai Martin as Prudence "Pru" Granger, Lucky's friend and Al's daughter.
  • Mckenna Grace as Abigail Stone, Lucky's friend and Snips' sister.
  • Walton Goggins as Hendricks, the leader of a gang of horse wranglers.
  • Andre Braugher as Al Granger, Pru's father.
  • Julianne Moore as Cora Prescott, Lucky's aunt and Jim's older sister.
  • Jake Gyllenhaal as James "Jim" Prescott, Lucky's widowed father and Cora's younger brother.
  • Eiza González as Milagro Navarro-Prescott, a famous horse rider and Lucky's late mother.
  • Lucian Perez as Snips Stone, Abigail's younger brother.
  • Joe Hart as James Prescott Sr., Lucky's grandfather
  • Alejandra Blengio as Valentina
  • Gino Montesinos as Wrangler/Rodeo Cowboy
  • Jerry Clarke as Wrangler/Llama Cowboy
  • Lew Temple as Wrangler/Conductor
  • Gary Anthony Williams as Wrangler
  • Renie Rivas as Lady with Dog
  • Horse vocals are provided by Gary Hecker

    Production

Development

On October 7, 2019, DreamWorks Animation announced that a spin-off film of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron as well as an adaptation of its spin-off TV series Spirit Riding Free was in development, with Elaine Bogan serving as director and Ennio Torresan Jr. serving as co-director from a script by series developer Aury Wallington, and produced by Karen Foster. While Spirit Riding Free explores the characters of Lucky and her friends, Spirit Untamed focuses deeper for Lucky in an emotional take in a standalone film that is not a sequel to the original nor the TV series.

Animation and design

The film would be produced on a lower budget and be made by a different animation studio outside of DreamWorks' Glendale studio, similar to 2017's Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Following the first trailer, it was confirmed that Jellyfish Pictures, who worked on How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming, would be providing the animation for the film, making Jellyfish's first animated project for over 300 people working on it. The film uses a style that is a mix of 3D with the look of a handpainted look from Riding Free, taking about 1300 shots, 25 of which were animated by Jellyfish, and used 2D drawings to make 3D maquettes, some of which were supplied by DreamWorks. Additional animation was provided by 88 Pictures from Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, and model rigging for the characters was provided by Minimo VFX.
Production of the film started in August 2019 and shifted to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Music

On May 6, 2021, Amie Doherty, composer for the DreamWorks Animation short film Marooned, was confirmed to be composing the music for the film, replacing Hans Zimmer who composed the score for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Doherty was the first woman to compose a DreamWorks film. The following day, a single titled "Fearless ", written by Doherty and performed by Isabela Merced and Eiza González, was released by Back Lot Music. A second single, titled "You Belong", performed by Becky G, was released on May 21, 2021. A soundtrack of the film was released on May 28, 2021, and additionally, Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes is featured on several tracks contributing vocal harmonies along with Eiza González. "Riding Free", the theme song from Spirit Riding Free by Kari Kimmel, is featured in Untamed.

Release

Theatrical

Spirit Untamed was theatrically released on June 4, 2021, by Universal Pictures. It was previously scheduled for May 14, 2021. The film was released on digital rental on June 24, 2021, on streaming services Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

Home media

Spirit Untamed was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 31, 2021, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment through Studio Distribution Services LLC in the United States.
It was then released on DVD and Blu-Ray as a "Special Sleepover Edition" on October 25, 2021, by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in the United Kingdom which features an hour of special features including "How to" sessions on how to create your own indoor "campfire", how to Ukulele, and how to make smores, meet the cast, drawing Spirit, finding your Spirit, deleted scenes and sing-along videos. It was later released on Hulu on November 3, 2021. The film grossed $2.9 million in home video sales.