Spirit Untamed (2021)

Spirit Untamed is a 2021 American animated adventure film directed by Elaine Bogan and co-directed by Ennio Torresan Jr., written by Aury Wallington and Kristin Hahn. The second theatrical film of the Spirit franchise, it is a soft reboot of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and is based on characters from Netflix spin-off series, Spirit Riding Free. With the voices of Isabela Merced, Jake Gyllenhaal, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Julianne Moore, Walton Goggins, and Andre Braugher, the film is about 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. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, Spirit Untamed was theatrically released in the United States on June 4, 2021, by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics who deemed the film inferior to the original and unnecessary, though its animation and humor was praised. The film was underperformed at the box-office grossing over $42 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million, making it both DreamWorks Animation's cheapest film and its lowest-grossing film to date.