Have you been looking for a family friendly series to get into with your kiddos? If you have been, read on, I have a suggestion for you. My 7-year-old daughter, loved the preview we just got to screen of a new animated series coming to Netflix. She watched the two-episode preview, three times last weekend.
We were given the opportunity to view Spirit Riding Free. I love these opportunities, my kids, ages 5 & 7 think it is so cool that they get to see shows and movies before anyone else. Anyway, Spirit is being released by Dreamworks exclusively on Netflix. If you have been holding out on Netflix for some crazy reason, then I suggest you sign up now. Spirit, Riding Free, is an adorable animated series about a 12-year-old girl named Lucky who moves from the city to the countryside with her father and aunt. Having just moved ourselves, my daughter seemed to relate to Lucky who was missing the only home she had ever known.
The pilot episode subtly told details about the backstory that my daughter missed, she will pick up on them later in the series I am sure. We did both laugh at many of the same parts, I got a little teary at one that she didn’t seem to notice. What I really liked about the first two episodes is that the storyline is a little deeper than the shows my kids typically watch. There were parts where both my daughter and I were frustrated with Lucky and others when we shared her joy. I also found that some talking points after we watched together, outside of our viewing party, seemed to come naturally. I hope that makes sense, put another way, the lessons were not forced, or too obvious.
These first two episodes set up a great series. Lucky and her horse Spirit are great protagonists, along with Lucky’s new friends Pru and Abigail. The antagonist, the Mayor’s snobby daughter, was only featured briefly but I have a feeling she will be appearing in future episodes.
There are few shows that my kids and I enjoy together, we are especially short on animated shows that we all enjoy together. We are eagerly awaiting the series on Netflix so we can watch more episodes. In the meantime, we will be reading the book that we received for the viewing party in hopes of learning more about Lucky, her horse Spirit, and her new home and friends.
