I mean seriously... they were lapping up water? wtf. The excessive squeals and neighs were sooooo friggin annoying too. They actually do that in a lot of films with horses I've noticed (Seabiscuit is one of the big ones...gaaah so annoying) Horses do not make that much noise.
Friendship is like peeing yourself: all see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.
I've ridden horses for over a decade, but I could still sit back and enjoy a MOVIE about them without demanding complete accuracy from it. It's a movie. Use your imagination a little and stop taking it so seriously!
shareThey probably knew a lot about horses, (since I think they captured the "spirit" - no pun intended - of the creature well), but they exaggerated those antics, probably to make them more human.
shareThey also don't narrate films. Have you been with a horse who's in the kind of distress this film's hero was in? maybe they neigh quite a bit under those circumstances.
shareI like this movie, I have it at home. But I love horses and I found some of the choices they made pretty weird and annoying, too.
The lapping water, the foals that never grew up, the horses that run around for no reason except to look majestic on camera. Especially at the end where they just start running pointlessly, and we all know why - to lead into that 360 eye candy shot that Dreamworks was so proud of and had to use twice. Exactly the same except that Rain is in it on the second time.
The biggest peeves are (obviously) the limited plot and the horrible narration, but it was also weird that none of the other horses had personalities or markings. They were all boring, solid colors. Except for his mom and the two foals, the herd had no identity at all. All the cavalry horses were boring, too. No unique colors, no markings. That was just bizarre. It gave the movie a real emptiness. Like beyond Spirit and Rain, horses are not interesting.
Re: the water lapping, it seems strange that the animators totally obsessed about the anatomy of horses and made sure to get them so accurate to physicality and behavior, but then totally let it go on certain aspects.
And no, I'm not overly critical. I enjoy this movie for what it is, but there are real issues, and the poor take ($75 mil - embarrassing) speaks for itself.
Considering the blahness of the herd those could be two completely new foals. The "old" foals may have grown up and gone to be cavalry horses.
I think the drinking water bit had to do with people whose only experience with animals being dogs/cats (you know "city folk") who do not know how horses/cows drink would be WTF they have straws????
Sometimes its better to ere on the side of viewers are morons then to treat them as knowledgeable when they might(probably) are not.
That looks bad, have you taken anything for it?
Ah, yes, I took 4 of your birth control pills
I love this movie. I own it and have watched it over and over, all I can say is that it's good for what it is. Of course it's not going to be completely accurate with the nature of Horses, but I think it had it nailed down fairly well with the characters. I do agree that they should've did more research and incorperated some reality of what Horses do here and there, at least just for one scene in particular, but it's fine.
I also agree that they made it more about Spirit and Rain than the other Horse characters, if they would've given them a different look in design to flesh out their character it would've made it seem more closer than distant. Half the time I totally forgot which one Spirit's Mother was.
The story is what it is. Is it an epic adventure? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not, our main focus is on Spirit and how he learns about the world outside of his herd, humans he interacts with, how he develops with them, and knowing what was bad vs. good. It's a character-based story told from a Horse's point-of-view, and that's what I love about it.
The only thing I truely and most deffinately didn't like at all in the movie was when ***SPOILERS*** Spirit nuzzles against Rain trying to comfort her after she's been shot and dragged across the river, Spirit says in his mind "I was hoping..." and then he said "PRAYING that she'd be alright.." Do these writers really want to inflict religion on Animal life? It doesn't make any sense and the realism is gone for that scene, I don't care if they're trying to make Spirit seem human, but if you're going to pull out some religion bullsh!t to swipe a few christian dollars at the box office you should've made the Horse just talk with his lips moving throughout.
I hate it when the writers think people are so stupid they wouldn't relate to a main character just because they don't seem human enough without mentioning religious babble or references to make us like that character. What about with Terminator 2, we all cried when Arnold dropped himself into the liquid fire, we understood why he had to go away, but we still cried with John when he didn't want him to go away. How could we feel for a character that is completely incapable of being human? They had Arnold connect with a human character and was given the advantages to understand the value of human life.
Why couldn't they establish that with Spirit? Granted, Terminator was about a cyborg, but most humans look at Animals as being unhuman and unrelative toward them on a personal note, but we all know that's bullsh!t, and Spirit could've done that too without having to mention religion into it, how did he know anything about religion? Did they have out-door bible studies? I know I'm getting off hand here, but that one line in the entire movie killed the realism for me and was unneccessary for Spirit's character.
In many ways, I agree with the narration, it could've told its story without it, but on the other hand it's an H-wood requirement, there's never been a main lead who was a mute character in any film history, unless of course it was a silent film. For me, the narration was alright, and so was the story. Horses are wonderful, graceful, gentle, powerful, see-into-your-heart creatures and that's why I love them, no matter what shape or form, they're the best of the best.
...fvckin' religion.
"You know what's funny? People. People are funny."
this film is far more enjoyable than the war horse! says it all.
Fenton!! Fenton..Oh Jesus Christ..FENTOOON
War Horse only failed because it didn't convey the emotions with the humans interractions with the horse characters. It's a mediocre horse film but it's not the worst ever.
"You know what's funny? People. People are funny."
Oh god some people are hard to please. The horses make too much noise.
At least they arn't taking. They had to give him a voice somehow, otherwise it would have been an extremely boring and quiet film to watch.
Guess what! The horses have eyebrow's too! You know why? It is an animated film, with animated characters who need personality. If the concept of imagination is too hard for you, go and sit in a field with horses instead.
You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.
-Walt Disney
I've gotten over it on how they did this movie, but I still hate the "praying" comment made, it doesn't have to be religious to be great.
"You know what's funny? People. People are funny."
I never saw the praying line as religious really. I always heard it that he was wishing, earnestly that she be ok. But that is just me.
You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.
-Walt Disney
I felt "Hoping" was enough.
"You know what's funny? People. People are funny."
I am not religious at all. Agnostic at best, but I use mainly religious phrases all the time. "I swear to god" being one of them, and if I really want something to happen, I will emphasize by saying I am prayer. To me that means I am repeating in my head "please please please let this happen," while not actually speaking to anyone...which is really what prayer is, isn't it?
share*"I am praying"
shareOut of all the unrealistic factors in the movie, you point out the noises the horses make?
shareI really did like the movie and I think you have to remember, that it's mainly a movie for children.
Âbout the movie being realistic:
No, it's not.
A horse can't think like spirit did (like humans). They can't plan things.
They are emotional, like, they're curious or angry or something, but you can not make a movie from the horses point of view if you don't humanize it to a certain extent.
So, I hardly care about the water lapping thing or the noises. Those who own a horse or work with them know that this isn't the normal behaviour of a horse.
@GoryPumpkinToby: Religion? Do you really think they meant it like that? In my opinion, they just wanted to deepen the emotions.
Tell that to the horses on my friends farm. They neigh all the day long! Lol
shareWell, lions don't talk and sing or swing from vines, but did anyone complain about that in the Lion King? its a movie, a children's movie. Its not meant to be 100% accurate. If the horses didn't make noises, it would have been a very dull and quiet movie.
share