Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced AKA Dora the Explorer) is a free spirit who has lost her mother at an early age and grown up full of vigour for the world around her. Concern from her family for her future cause them to relocate her to the sleepy town of Miradero. The town is also the home of her absent father Jim (Jake Gyllenhaal). He disappeared from her life in reaction to the overwhelming grief of losing his wife, Lucky’s mother.

At first, the relaxed lifestyle of the town drives Lucky to distraction until she bonds with the wild horse Spirit. From this point forward her life becomes filled with purpose and she fights to save the wild animal and its herd from a group of rowdy wranglers led by Hendricks (Walton Goggins). This transforms the film into an epic tale of female-led heroism.

Taking full advantage of the animator’s art, the computer-generated landscapes are impressive as is the level of danger to be overcome. It treads the fine line between immediate harm and overwhelming danger and provides just the right level of thrills for the little ones. As always with films like this, it provides adult amusement as you try to figure out which character is attached to which star’s voice. You’ll be surprised by how few you get.

Rob Hudson
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Lucky Prescott (Isabela Merced, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) never really knew her late mother, Milagro Navarro (Eiza González, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), a fearless horse-riding stunt performer from Miradero, a small town on the edge of the wide-open frontier.

Like her mother, Lucky isn’t exactly a fan of rules and restrictions, which has caused her Aunt Cora (Academy Award® winner Julianne Moore) no small amount of worry. Lucky has grown up in an East Coast city under Cora’s watchful eye, but when Lucky presses her own luck with one too many risky escapades, Cora picks up stakes and moves them both back with Lucky’s father, Jim (Oscar®nominee Jake Gyllenhaal), in Miradero.

Lucky is decidedly unimpressed with the sleepy little town. She has a change of heart when she meets Spirit, a wild Mustang who shares her independent streak, and befriends two local horseback riders, Abigail Stone (Mckenna Grace, Captain Marvel) and Pru Granger (Marsai Martin, Little). Pru’s father, stable owner Al Granger (Emmy winner Andre Braugher, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine), is the best friend of Lucky’s father.

When a heartless horse wrangler (Emmy nominee Walton Goggins, FX’s Justified) and his team plan to capture Spirit and his herd and auction them off to a life of captivity and hard labor, Lucky enlists her new friends and bravely embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to rescue the horse who has given her freedom and a sense of purpose, and has helped Lucky discover a connection to her mother’s legacy and to her Mexican heritage that she never expected.

Spirit Untamed will be released in Australian cinemas from May!
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