The animation team at Dreamworks has created a great adventure with an excellent storyline, a rocking soundtrack and wholesome entertainment for the entire family. Matt Damon provides the narrative for Spirit-Stallion of The Cimarron, a classically drawn animated feature.

We are witness to the beauty of the west in the opening sequence, which employs great angle shots from behind an eagle flying across the country where Spirit is born. The animation is breathtaking. Spirit grows up in a wild herd and soon his curiosity for new adventures leads him into trouble with Man. Captured by horse traders, he is brought to an Army post, where he meets his nemesis, a colonel (played vocally by James Cromwell). While captured, he also meets his first man friend, a Native American whose name is Little Creek. When they escape together, Spirit also meets his love, a pony by the name of Rain. Spirit's quest is to return to his home but finds he also wants to stay with Rain. The fast paced story has many dramatic moments including an exciting train sequence and water rescue. Character development is strong and especially challenging considering the animals don't speak but it works and works well. With little narration, the story is still easy to follow for even young viewers and there are no real frightening sequences that should alarm youngsters.

Clear, sharp images were drawn for the main characters. The animation does have computer generated sequences, making this even more pleasing to the eye. The opening sequence was positively awesome in scope and great care was taken to express emotions through the animals characters. The anamorphic widescreen transfer is excellent and shows the tremendous work that went into this production. Sound is Dolby digital 5.1 and is also important to the impact of the film, as it has a great soundtrack music by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator) and Bryan Adams. Through the music, many of the sequences in the film take on additional power, as the pop-rock songs express the situation beautifully.

A great deal of extras are included on this one disc, including a lot of DVD-ROM features and Dreamworks Kids features. We are treated to a lesson in drawing Spirit, hosted by a lead animator, and features about the integration of 2D drawing and 3D computer generated animation. Another feature interviews composer Hans Zimmer and rock singer Bryan Adams as we follow their work for the soundtrack. Storyboards and filmmakers commentary are also available on the disc. The really exciting feature though is DVD-ROM feature that allows you to create your own movie with backgrounds, characters, music and sound effects from the film. You are even allowed to incorporate your own narration, and import photos. Hats off to Dreamworks for this fun and exciting new use for DVD. My only pet peeve is that it is PC only, not Mac compatible. Many games are also included but beware of the DVD console games-arcade games that are designed to have your kids womp on the control buttons of your DVD player may have parents screaming when the buttons get worn out. The DVD-ROM portion has a number of other games included (Hillside Glide, Cimarron Slam, Wild West Word Wrangle, and Lakota Decoder) and should keep the kids busy for hours.

A great family film, this disc is sure to capture your children's hearts and entertain you just as much. Animation fans will be thrilled at the quality of the production and the extras will keep you coming back to this disc again and again.