Spirit Untamed Review

6/1/2021

Movies are heading back to theaters just in time for some summer fun now that school is ending! Spirit Untamed is only in theaters, June 4th! This film features a voice cast that includes some real heavy hitters, Jake Gyllenhaal and Juilanne Moore along with Isabela Merced, most recently seen in "Dora and the Lost City of Gold". Spirit Untamed has an overarching theme of friendship and female empowerment as Lucky and her friends take on the horse wranglers themselves, but is this PG rated film OK for kids? In my no-spoilers parent review I'm sharing my thoughts on the plot, the peril, and the PG rating. Plus I've got a super fun activity sheet packet for you to download and print for free!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Review Wire Media for Dreamworks. I was provided early access to Spirit Untamed for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Spirit Untamed | No-Spoilers Review & Free Activity Sheets

Spirit Untamed | A No-Spoilers, Parent Review

Spirit Untamed | Movie Synopsis

An epic adventure about a headstrong girl longing for a place to belong who discovers a kindred spirit when her life intersects with a wild horse, Spirit Untamed is the next chapter in the beloved story from DreamWorks Animation.

Spirit Untamed is only in theaters June 4th!

Spirit Untamed | No-Spoilers, Parent Review

The Plot

This is an animated film geared towards younger children so of course within the first 5 minutes Spirit Untamed is going to bring all the feels (and possible tears) for parents as we come to discover Lucky's mom has died. This kicks off the film and sets the tone for why Lucky and her dad are now reuniting 10 years later.

The adults in the room may find the plot of the film to be a bit silly in the sense that that these three young girls, Lucky, Pru and Abigail go on a trek over the mountains and rocky ridges alone to stop grown men. They packed only marshmallows for food and certainly had no weapons on them.

Lucky is strong willed and knows that how the horse wranglers are treating Spirit and the rest of the wild horses is not right. She wants to stop them and prove to her father she can ride horses (just like her mom).

Spirit Untamed showcases the importance of being kind to animals and the importance of friendships.

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The Peril

There are some scenes in which the horse wranglers are rough with Spirit and the other wild horses, they use ropes and are clearly forcing the horses to walk to areas that are against their will.

There are instances when it appears our young star, Lucky may be hurt and this could make young children upset, at one point takes a pretty serious fall.

The PG Rating

Spirit Untamed is rated PG for some action adventure.

I think this may be the most G rated, PG film I've (ever?) seen.

This film is certainly tame when it comes to language, there is a part of the girls' travels that requires them to go to "Heck Mountain" and at one point the question "what the heck?" is asked. But the only other phrasing that stuck out to me was near the beginning of the film, we see Lucky panicking about the state of the dining hall inside her grandfather's house and she states that her grandfather is and I quote, "going to kill me".

There are a few scenes where Lucky is riding Spirit very fast, they are in a race against time at one point and Spirit and Lucky certainly take a "leap" of faith.

When it comes to action, we follow along as our three best friends go on a trek hoping to stop the bad guys (horse wranglers). Even though these girls are clearly children, the bad guys have no problem trying to fight them so we do have instances when men and children are going toe to toe in order to stop the horse wranglers from taking the horses.

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Final Thoughts

The first thing that stood out to me about Spirit Untamed is the mere fact that Spirit, and the other horses in the film were animated to be, well, horses. It can be so easy for an animated film geared towards younger children to make the animals talk. Instead, Spirit Untamed has the horses express themselves through their eyes, nostril flares and head movements.

In regards to Lucky losing her mom, the scene is quick and nothing is shown but its quickness may cause the event to go over younger children's heads. I say this because my daughters assumed that Lucky's aunt, was her mom later on in the film and referred to her as such when they saw her on screen with Lucky and Jim.

The theme of friendship runs deep through Spirit Untamed. We not only see the friendship between Lucky, Pru and Abigail but we also see a strong bond between Jim and Al. I really appreciated how the girls all had each other's back and how quickly Pru and Abigail added Lucky into their crew. The friends each have different strengths and they truly lift each other up and it was quite lovely to watch.

Age recommendation for Spirit Untamed: 4+

Spirit Untamed is just under 90 minutes in length. I think younger children will enjoy seeing the three girls interact, there are certainly a lot of silly moments and jokes that will bring the giggles.

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