Spirit: Riding Free

Oh my goodness, who's excited for the new Netflix-Dreamworks show Spirit: Riding Free? Unfortunately we know almost nothing about it as of late, but from what I've seen of the pictures, it looks absolutely adorable! I hope it follows in the footsteps of Horseland in that has at least sort of realistic horse behavior and the like. I mean, obviously the horses look like they might be able to talk, or at least talk to each other, and it's a kid's cartoon, so realism won't be exact, but I hope it at least tries to be sort of believable for people who are familiar with horses. Horseland had inaccuracies, like how to help a horse with colic, when it's safe to leave your horse untied, etc., but it was surprisingly accurate in other ways, such as equestrian vocabulary, showing rules, general horse behavior, and other things.  I also hope this new show has 2-D animation similar to the movie Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. I personally don't like 3-D animation unless it's very polished. Since they have a painting as their promo picture instead of a CGI image, I'm guessing it will be 2-D. UPDATE: Oops, it's 3-D. That's disappointing. Pretty much everything is 3-D these days, and the original movie it's based off of was 2-D. On the upside, the camera angles, the way the characters move, etc., is all very remeniscent of the original, which I think is really cool. While I would have preferred 2-D, you can tell they put effort into making it similar. It also helps distinguish it as its own storyline that's independent of the original. Teaser trailer: m.youtube.com/watch?v=XUB3TzNe…

Inspired by the movie Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron!

From what we can see from the picture, it looks like it's inspired by Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, but that it's not meant to be a sequel. A lot of people are upset because "how could they change Spirit like this??" and whatnot. They didn't change it, though. This isn't like The Lion Guard (for the record, I like TLG). This isn't Spirit from the movie. It's just inspired by the movie. For example, the horses are not the same ones from the movie. This Spirit has a blaze, the pinto is not Rain, and the palomino is not Esperanza. According to the toy releases, the pinto's name is Boomerang (a stallion or gelding, not Spirit's girlfriend), and the palomino's name is Chica Linda (no known family relation to Spirit). Even more evidence that this isn't meant to be a sequel to the movie is the fact that the girls are wearing modern clothes. There's no way the Spirit from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron could be that old. Horses only live about 30 years, usually less in the wild.

This show has been getting a lot of hatred from fans of the original Spirit, and it hasn't even aired its first episode yet. I think this is because fans have been wanting a Spirit II for years, and they've developed an idea of what that will be. Naturally, this show doesn't fit their idea. But so what? This doesn't affect the Spirit we know. It doesn't change anything about him, his story, the other characters, etc. Literally nothing about the original movie has been changed. The only thing this could possibly mean is that Spirit had a foal (but we kind of assumed that already, so what's the big deal?) There is still the possibility of them making a Spirit II. For all we know, this could just be DreamWorks testing the waters to see how the Spirit franchise is accepted.

And all the same, why spoil the fun? Even though it isn't the sequel we've been waiting for, it still has the potential to be a perfectly good show. We had Spirit when we were kids, and now our kids have a chance to have a Spirit for themselves. Riding Free isn't aimed at us; it's aimed at kids. Let them enjoy it.

Possible characters in the series, according to a set of Breyer toys:

Spirit - a buckskin horse with a white blaze

Lucky - an olive-skinned girl with dark brown hair

Abigail - A light-skinned girl with short blonde hair

Boomerang - a brown pinto stallion with brown eyes

Prudence - A dark skinned girl with dark brown hair

Chica Linda - a palomino mare with a light muzzle and slightly clipped hair

Señor Carrots - a donkey

I feel like I shouldn't be this excited for a cartoon but...too late!


UPDATE: I just saw the first episode, and it's adorable! It's definitely aimed at kids younger than 12, because it's pretty unrealistic. Supposedly Spirit still has a herd, but if the lead stallion is gone to go play with a girl, he'd lose his herd. The horses don't talk, but they do understand human language and act accordingly. Thus, it's not realistic, but it is cute! You can tell the animation was low budget. That said, I think they did a fantastic job keeping the horses' designs and movements in character with the original movie. Translating 2-D animation into 3-D is probably tricky, and I think they did pretty well. Come to think of it, that's probably why it looks a little rudimentary. Interesting... Anyway, I was wrong about the time period (it takes place not to long after the original movie), but I was right that it's about Spirit's descendant! The horse in the show is Spirit and Rain's son, according to an interview with the writers. He looks like Spirit, but seems to take more after Rain in personality. It's important to remember that he's NOT THE ORIGINAL SPIRIT. So no, Spirit did not "get broken." Personally, I would have preferred if he was a dun pinto like literally every fan art and breyer toy depicted Spirit's foal as, but it doesn't matter in the long run. Also: So far none of the horses talk.

More info: 
www.animationsource.org/spirit…
dreamworks.wikia.com/wiki/Spir…
twitter.com/SpiritRidingFre?la…