A Tale of Two Spirits

I'm a big fan of the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron put out by DreamWorks Pictures in 2002.  I first saw it live in the movie theatre, and then got the DVD version as soon as it was released.  

Spirit came out at the beginning of a minor explosion of new horse movies, including The Young Black Stallion (2003), Seabiscuit (2003), Hidalgo (2004), Dreamer (2005), and Flicka (2006).  While horse movies have never really disappeared from the big screen, this five-year span was heaven for horse lovers, with a new movie coming out every year.  A friend and I had a standing date to go see every new movie as it came out, and although we had critiques for some, we thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Spirit stands alone though, as being the only animated feature, and the one tale that is told entirely from the viewpoint of the horse.  This technique had been used before, most notably in the 1994 movie Black Beauty, and in several earlier animated versions of the same.  It's also part of the narrative line of 1993's The Silver Brumby (also called The Silver Stallion), where the horse's point of view is utilized to tell the "tale within a tale" of the movie.

 (image from the Internet Movie Database)

All of this combines to make Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron one of my favourite horse movies of all time.  Horses are notoriously difficult animals to draw and animate well for those who have not studied them in depth.  The animators behind Spirit made an extensive study of horses in general and Kiger mustangs in particular, striving for a distinctively stylized yet realistic look and movement on the screen.  Yes, they added eyebrows, but they only did it after a great deal of thought.  They simply needed to make their horses' faces more expressive so that the viewers could more easily empathize with what they were seeing.

Another thing that's notable about all the horse movies that came out between 2002 and 2006 is that Breyer had a hand in promoting all but The Young Black Stallion (although they did release the youthful-looking "Sham" version of the Black Stallion at this time).  Breyer offered Seabiscuit and War Admiral in Traditional, Classic, and Stablemate sizes, in addition to Stablemate-sized ornaments, a selection of plushies, and even a pair of stick horses. Hidalgo also got the Traditional/Classic/Stablemate treatment with a couple of plush, as also did Dreamer and Flicka.

For Spirit, however, Breyer went overboard, creating two new Traditional sculpts (Spirit and Rain), two more realistic Classic sets, Stablemate sets, porcelain sets, pewter sets, treasure boxes, a tankard, coffee mugs, and even a diorama.

However, despite my great affection for the movie and all this desirable merch, I never added a single Spirit item to my collection.  I loved the animated movie, but I wasn't all that keen on adding cartoon horses to my collection at that time.  I thought about adding one of the more realistic Classic sets, but I didn't like the molds enough to make the investment.

How things changed when the DreamWorks Netflix series Spirit: Riding Free debuted in 2017!  Once again, Breyer went to town on promotions, releasing a new Traditional Spirit on the old Spirit mold, re-purposing Rain as Chica Linda, and releasing a new Traditional sculpture for Boomerang.  This time around we also have hairy Spirits and friends in approximately Classic size, two plastic sets in approximately Little Bit scale (one with riders and one featuring the horses only), two series (so far) of Spirit: Riding Free Stablemate blind bags, a bunch of paint-your-own activity kits, a jewelry box, and a trio of plushies.

Spirit (Jr.)

Spirit: Riding Free launched to a great deal of criticism and confusion amongst model horse folk.  Why did this version of Spirit have a blaze?  Why would Spirit allow himself to be "tamed" by Lucky?  What relation did this Spirit have to the events of the original movie?

Chica Linda

DreamWorks, to my knowledge, has offered no definitive answers to these questions, but the fan community has come up with some answers that will do for me, to wit: This Spirit is a son of the original Spirit and Rain, and has inherited some of Rain's tolerance towards human contact.  As a young stallion, he naturally moved out of Spirit's territory in pursuit of his own herd, but after being captured and then at least partially tamed in Miradero he has had less and less to do with his herd, ceding everyday leadership duties to the grey stallion, Smoke.  This Spirit is young enough to learn to circus tricks, and will live in a stable as long as he is able to come and go as he pleases.  He has adopted Chica Linda, Boomerang, and all of his human companions as his new herd.

Boomerang

I enjoy Spirit: Riding Free although it can't hold a candle to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron as far as I'm concerned.  Still, I'm all for more well-wrought horse animations, and this one is certainly more satisfying than some others I've seen, like DIC Entertainment's 2006-2008 Horseland TV series -- a series I had high hopes for, but which disappointed with its wise-cracking, wildly-coloured horses looking very much like grown-up My Little Ponies.

But, as I've noted, my collecting ambitions have undergone a revolution since 2002.  No longer am I barring animated equines from my collection -- instead, I'm embracing all things Spirit.  I have Stablemates from both blind bag series, the PVC Spirit and Friends set, the small Chica Linda and Pru set, and I've even had a couple of paint-your-own Spirits, although I declined to paint them after the cartoon horses (my Stablemate is a blue roan and my Classic-size hairy one is a dark bay/near black pinto).

I can't tell you exactly what caused this change of heart -- it doesn't even make sense to me when I reflect that I admire the original movie much more than the Netflix series.

I just collect as the spirit moves me, I guess.