If the likes of Toy Story and Shrek have given the impression that animated features are hip `n' happening, then DreamWorks' latest offering is a sharp reminder that faౠr lesser breeds of family fare are still snuffling around. For while there's no faulting the detail and texture of its animation, Spirit: Stallion of t🌳he Cimarron's insufferable sanctimony makes you wish it would trot off quietly to the nearest knacker's yard.

The sermon - - sorry, story - - kicks off with our eponymous hero growing up to become leader of hisও herd, like his father before him, under the indulgent gaze of his doting mo▨ther. Their idyll is shattered by the arrival of cavalrymen, intent on taming the West in typically unsporting fashion. But Spirit (as we're incessantly reminded) isn't a horse who breaks easily, and is soon partnering up with a Native American brave to thwart their common adversaries.

While very young kids might sit rapt at the spectacle of our four-legged friends galloping through a pristine Wild West, adults will have to rely on the bluster of Bryan Adams songs to drown out their inner screams. Not an attra💦ctive prospect, maybe, but anything's better than the smug tones of Matt Damon's redundant narration💟.