DreamWorks Animation is a dominant force in the animation industry. Ever since its launch in 1994, the studio has earned critical and box office hits with beloved films like the Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon series, but not every movie has fared quite as well. An animated movie released in 2021 set an unfortunate record for the studio, and Peacock subscribers now have the opportunity to stream it at home.
Spirit Untamed galloped into Peacock’s streaming library on April 30th, five years after it hit theaters to abysmal results. The animated film, a soft reboot of the 2002 original Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and based on Netflix’s Spirit Riding Free, set the unfortunate record of being DreamWorks Animation’s lowest-grossing theatrical film to date. Although the film was produced on a lower budget than typical DreamWorks features of just $30 million, it only grossed just over $42 million worldwide and was considered a massive box office disappointment, especially given the success of the 2002 original, which grossed $122 million worldwide.
DreamWorks’ Spirit Untamed Underperformed at the Box Office but Was a Hit With Audiences
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That low box office number and unfortunate record shouldn’t dissuade you from watching Spirit Untamed. For those who did show up in theaters to watch the movie, the price of a ticket was well-worth it. The movie scored an impressive 95% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes – a number that only trails other hits like The Wild Robot by a few points and even beats others like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish – with a story about Lucky Prescott, a city girl who moves to a small frontier town to live with her estranged father and forms an unbreakable bond with a wild mustang named Spirit. When a heartless wrangler tries to capture and sell Spirit’s herd into captivity, Lucky and her new friends must team together and embark on an epic adventure to rescue them.
While critics were a bit harsher in their opinions, giving Spirit Untamed a 48% score, general viewers praised the film’s warm, family-friendly adventure that is perfectly entertaining for kids and its great girl-power message and themes of courage, believing in yourself, and navigating family relationships. The movie also has some pretty great character dynamics, particularly between Lucky and her friends, and as is typical with DreamWorks films, beautiful and thrilling animation.
Other Family-Friendly Movies Now on Peacock
April was a pretty great month for Peacock’s family-friendly lineup. Prior to the arrival of Spirit Untamed on April 30th, the NBCUniversal streamer stocked several other kid-friendly titles, including fellow DreamWorks titles Bee Movie, the first three Kung Fu Panda films, and The Prince of Egypt, as well as the live-action Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat and the iconic ‘90s live-action/animated hybrid Space Jam.
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