DreamWorks Animation’s “Spirit Untamed,” based on Netflix’s “Spirit Riding Free,” a cartoon series about the adventures of a trio of horse-loving 13-year-old girls, is a serviceable though unremarkable entry in the franchise that began in 2002 with “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” (a hand-animated Oscar nominee with which this pretty but somewhat sterile CGI spinoff has little in common, other than the titular wild mustang). There have also been spinoffs like “Pony Tales” and “Riding Academy” along the road.
The story begins in the American frontier hamlet of Miradero in the nineteenth century, with a finely choreographed tragedy: the unintentional death of a trick equestrian who turns out to be the mother of a toddler while performing. Let’s fast forward a few years: That toddler grows up to become Fortuna, a.k.a. Lucky, the main character (voice of Isabela Merced). As the story begins, Lucky (Jake Gyllenhaal), now a teenager, is reunited with her father (Jake Gyllenhaal), who, traumatized by the death of his wife, entrusted the care and feeding of his daughter to his sister Cora (Julianne Moore) back East, hoping that Lucky would never see a horse.
Lucky spots — and falls in love with — a wild stallion riding alongside the train to Miradero with her Aunt Cora. When she arrives in Miradero, she rapidly joins the local equestrian community, which includes two riders her age, Abigail and Prudence (Mckenna Grace and Marsai Martin). They spend the majority of their time together, despite Lucky’s father’s desires, hanging out at Pru’s father’s ranch (Andre Braugher). A crew of horse thieves led by an unethical wrangler are breaking the mustang, nicknamed Spirit by Lucky (Walton Goggins).
When the wranglers expose their plan to kidnap Spirit and his herd and sell them to the highest bidder, Lucky and her friends engage in a lot of dangerous disobedience. (The acronym PAL, which is the girls’ collective moniker, is formed by the initials of their names.)
Spirit au galop en tout liberté !
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