Spirit Riding Free

If you want your generic girls riding and bonding horses show, its cute and funny, and it is 100% what you would expect from this kind of show. I came as a a fan of the original but this was enjoyable on its own and doesn't require seeing the original movie.

If you were looking for something like the namesake, a movie about a wild horse stumbling through the taming of the wild west and the struggle of Native Americans, who also bonds with a human through their trials, there is nothing for you here. The only thing this has in common with the movie is the name. The only real nods to the movie within the show itself is where they show that this Spirit is the original's son in the pony tails shorts, and they occasionally use Spirit not liking rope as a plotpoint. They basically used the name as a marketing tool, they could replace Spirit with any wild horse and nothing would change.

I was gonna go for 5 stars since it was a good show but completely lied for the title, but I think other fans of the original keep giving it a terrible score just out of revenge for the title so I'll help bump it up a bit.

This isn't about the movie.

This isn't about frontier history.

It's a stand-alone project for tween girls, and it's excellent. Empowerment, freedom, rising to meet a challenge, humility, courage, empathy, unbreakable friendships and fierce loyalty, responsibility, facing your fears, risking your life for loved ones, family, resisting the pressure to 'conform to the norm, ' admitting mistakes, apologizing and saying, "I'm sorry," childish mistakes not blown out of proportion, willful disobedience dealt with compassionately and straightforwardly, blended family, single parent - a great many situations that tween girls face are modeled and dealt with superbly.

You don't have to like the show. Just quit picking on it for not being what you want it to be. It isn't your show. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything. Young girls are watching.

Perhaps if you've not seen the movie, you would enjoy the Spirit series as much as we do. We like how girls are empowered to be problem solvers even if situations are improbable and often dangerous. Watching the same episodes multiple times does not diminish the excellent characterization. We are thankful the series is continuing.

The horse in Spirit Riding Free is not the same horse as the horse in Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. The original Spirit was a Dun (Dun stripe down the middle of his back) The Horse in Spirit Riding Free is a Buckskin and has no Dun stripe.

Now. Problem solved. All of you that are so offended can calm down.

More than one horse name Spirit in this world. My son has a Dun horse, colored like the original Spirit because he Loves the Original movie. He also Loves the series too. Not the same story. Not the same horse. Calm down. Enjoy the series. It's good fun and in no way has insulted your favorite of the Spirits.

Also I'd like to point out that the original movie and the series are fictional. Horses do not behave in this manner. I've trained horses for over twenty years. These stories are for kids. They are not real.

Sure, this isn't a show for history buffs or die-hard Spirit enthusiasts, but it's a cute and entertaining show for kids. If the horse had any other name I think people could calm down and stop getting so angry that this isn't a "true" depiction of wild horses and their behaviour. The characters' eyes are also bigger than their mouths, so chill out. The show is entertaining and one of the few things I can watch with my toddler and not hate. The characters are sweet, mostly likable and the stories - while far-fetched - are fun and usually have some kind of lesson thrown in.