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63
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47
27 Dresses
29
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39
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81
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84
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Cloverfield
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Cover
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Delirious
92
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43
Final Season, The
41
First Sunday
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xx
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74
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30
Over Her Dead Body
39
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P2
46
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55
Resurrecting the Champ
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Savages, The
78
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83
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38
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32
Untraceable
63
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68
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71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43
Youth Without Youth
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
92
There Will Be Blood
85
Savages, The
84
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
83
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
81
Juno
81
Bamako
78
Starting Out in the Evening
77
Nanking
74
Orphanage, The
71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
Final Season, The
41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
P2
32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
24
One Missed Call
15
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
7
Hottie and the Nottie, The
xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
DreamWorks Distribution LLC
MPAA RATING: G for General Audiences
Starring
Matt Damon (narrator),
James Cromwell,
and
Daniel Studi
The animated adventures of a wild and rambunctious mustang stallion as he journeys through the untamed American frontier. (DreamWorks)
| GENRE(S): |
Western
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Fusco
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Kelly Asbury
Lorna Cook
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 19, 2002
Video: November 19, 2002
Theatrical: May 24, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
82 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It's an extraordinary feat of animation, possibly the most lovingly conceived, uncompromisingly executed and totally successful animated film since "The Lion King."

90
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
It's classic animation wedded to modern technology -- painted pictures that move in magical splendor.
90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The movie's big action scenes, at times, make you forget you're even watching animation. There's an in-your-face sequence involving a runaway, crashing train that will make you squirm in your seat trying to get out of the way.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
An animated fairy tale made with simple, elegant conviction.

80
Chicago Reader
Staff (Not Credited)
The animators have re-created equine movement and behavior with uncanny verisimilitude.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
A poetic and lovely tale, told as a silent picture with music and narration.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The film is short at 82 minutes, but surprisingly moving, and has a couple of really thrilling sequences.

75
Chicago Tribune
Loren King
A welcome family film that extols noble values and offers first-class animation.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
A cartoon that's truly cinematic in scope, and a story that's compelling and heartfelt - even if the heart belongs to a big, four-legged herbivore.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Those for whom Spirit was made will find this to be a thoroughly enjoyable production. As a "kids' movie", Spirit is a resounding success.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Ray Conlogue
Visually the film is a knockout. I'm not sure this will matter to the young adult audience, but the film is philosophically confusing.

70
Newsweek
John Horn
For all its retro design, Spirit actually represents a delicate marriage of the hand and the computer.
70
Time
Richard Schickel
It's a pretty, high-strung story, handsomely done in traditional animation (mostly by hand) that you can take the kids to without wincing.

63
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Spirit lacks that essential emotional resonance, and suffers because of it.
63
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Popcorn-buyers, beware: This is no "Shrek," with raucous adult humor sailing over the heads of wee ones. This is "Sesame Street"-level, with white hats, black hats and simple moral messages.
60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Despite its good intentions, Spirit is more self-conscious and uninspiring from a dramatic point of view than one might have wished. Still, whenever it threatens to get bogged down in earnest dramaturgy, a stirring visual sequence -- rouses us.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
It's handsomely mounted, and its heart seems in the right place, but that's not reason enough to put on a show.

50
LA Weekly
Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
Rather exciting, rendered in a bright sunset palette and a mixture of expressive, boldly drawn traditional animation and fluid computer-generated imagery.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
The action is mild enough for fairly young children, and grownups may enjoy its old-fashioned spirit.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
The result is a mishmash that is sometimes moving, sometimes absurd and most of the time just oddly off balance.

40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Saddled with a sentimentally "sincere" subject and lacking the stylistic and humorous cachet of the recent computer-animated smashes.

40
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
Spirit's narration comes to us courtesy of Matt Damon, who, having played a horse's ass in some of his earlier movies, perhaps thought it wise to inhabit the entire nag this time around.

40
The New York Times
Dave Kehr
As it stands, "Spirit" provides neither the profound human touch of the great Disney animation of the past, nor the dazzling, high-tech fun of present-day digital cartooning.

30
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Can barely limp to its final CinemaScope sunset shot.

25
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
A boring, wincingly cute and nauseatingly politically correct cartoon guaranteed to drive anyone much over age 4 screaming from the theater.

20
TV Guide
Steve Simels
Think "The Lion King" redone for horses, with fewer deliberate laughs, more inadvertent ones and stunningly trite songs by Bryan Adams.

20
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
Dreary adventure. Parents, be forewarned: No talking equines means more songs, and the viselike soundtrack might be someone's idea of a cruel joke: hoarse whisperer Bryan Adams.

16
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The animation is dull, the thought is fuzzy, the storytelling is vague and the music just plain stinks. It's not "National Velvet," it's sure not "The Black Stallion," it's not even "Dances With Wolves."

10
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
It's an exceptionally dreary and overwrought bit of work, every bit as imperious as Katzenberg's "The Prince of Egypt" from 1998.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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