Spirit Untamed

Spirit Untamed is a 2021 American animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film was directed by Elaine Bogan and co-directed by Ennio Torresan Jr. (in their feature directorial debuts), from a screenplay written by Aury Wallington and Kristin Hahn, making this the second theatrical film release of the Spirit franchise and is both a spin-off and a stand-alone sequel of the traditionally animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and loosely based on the characters from its Netflix animated spin-off television series Spirit Riding Free, developed by Wallington. Featuring the voices of Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Julianne Moore, Walton Goggins, and Andre Braugher, the film follows 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. The film received mixed reviews from critics who deemed the film inferior to the original and unnecessary, though its animation was praised. The movie was also a box-office bomb after grossing $42 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million. 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 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 really 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.