The original
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron movie by DreamWorks came out in 2002--the year my kids were two and four years old. My four-year-old, in particular, was obsessed with this movie, in part because of the impressive steam engine featured in one of the climactic scenes. At that time we were all listening to a series of tapes (yes, cassette tapes...) with songs about the construction of the transcontinental railroad, so both boys liked everything that had to do with trains. Anyway, I loved the movie because of all the horses--and because the horses weren't given silly human voices. Matt Damon adds a voice to some of Spirit's thoughts, but this is a rare occurrence, used only to forward the plot or explain a complicated scene. The human protagonist in this movie is a kind-hearted Lakota teenager named Little Creek who yearns to ride Spirit, but knows when to stop trying. It's a wonderful movie that will always have a special place in my heart.
In May of this year, DreamWorks premiered a new animated series on Netflix called
Spirit Riding Free. Season two of the series was released last week. Fans of the original movie looked forward to this series with great anticipation, many of us hoping to rekindle the excitement we felt fifteen years ago when we were first introduced to Spirit's Wild West.
Both Just Play and Breyer have released a whole collection of
Spirit Riding Free toys, and I will look at several of these in today's review. I want to start the review by showing you something I bought right after I watched
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, though. This is Breyer's 2002 model of Spirit himself:
 |
| Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Breyer horse model, 2002. |
