The Spirit DVD was released in the UK on November the 4th 2002 to a pretty much non-existent promotional campaign (a few TV adverts, that was it.) I didn�t even know that it was due out on that date, it was only when my sister told me she had seen an advert on the day it was released that I knew it was out. Dreamworks PR people really need to put some effort into promoting the international release of this film; there are other countries other than America you know. Rant over, to the review of the DVD features.

The DVD starts off with a small movie showing the process of how the scene where the camera pans around Spirit on the hill, starting off black and white and showing computer generated horses to line drawing to complete animation. This is quite cute, as well as showing how complicated that shot was to animate. It then moves to the animated menus, showing line drawn characters for each section of the DVD, Spirit for the movie, the eagle for the special features, Little Creek for scene selection and Rain for setting up. With the exception of Spirit, when clicked these characters are coloured and become animated before leading in to each section.

One thing that is obvious is that the DVD is very much geared towards children. Its all very bright and colourful with lots of games and other kids features such as how to draw Spirit, and very little on the actual animation process for animation enthusiasts such as myself, which is very disappointing. Compared to the Ice Age DVD, which had lots of in depth information on animation, this is very poor. It doesn�t even have trailers of the movie. However, as well as the standard making off features there is one gem of a feature, the storyboard comparisons. These consist of Spirits Capture, the Colonel riding Spirit, Spirit causing the train crash and Spirit�s jump, and are my favourite feature. These are the closest you can get to deleted scenes; one example is showing that Spirits capture was originally going to be more violent.

Back to the kids� features, the DVD consists of many interactive features such as a calendar maker, games and the moviemaker. These are good if you have a DVD-ROM. I don�t, so these features are pretty much useless to me. If fact, there are only 2 set top games, Cimarron slam and Mustang Derby, which are annoyingly simple, though Cimarron Slam (a kind of shoot �em up game) is quite addictive.

Even though I only have a few DVDs, Spirit is pretty poor compared to the other animated film DVDs I own. Too kid orientated and not nearly enough animation information. However, the excellent quality of the film, and the fact that it is in wide screen, is worth the price. It also comes with an ugly yet cute mini Spirit beanie, which is nice, though confirms that this DVD is for children.