Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron - Animation
Spirit is a unique and original look at western life from the point of view of a wild horse, and native Americans. The film focuses on the friendships and perils that a wild horse, Spirit, encounters during his life.
Very well done in the presentation, using the technology available today to deliver stunning visuals that are breathtaking in their depth and realism. The music is fantastic, with songs by Bryan Adams, and music by Hans Zimmer, who also was responsible for the extremely popular music from the 1994 Disney hit, The Lion King. he story is not very deep but the fact that it isn't quite as in-depth as some movies doesn't in my opinion detract from the film as a whole.
The movie has three selling points for people who are appalled at how childish and inane animated features in the U.S. have been over the last decade or so:
1) It's got a serious story. 2) The horses don't talk. 3) The horses don't sing.
The latter two functions are served by Spirit's first-person narration, voiced by Matt Damon and told in the past tense as a reminiscence, and several songs on the soundtrack written and performed by Bryan Adams. Neither of these elements were particularly necessary and the movie would have been better without them, although they aren't fatal. Hans Zimmer's excellent music score does a far more effective job in conveying, in dramatic and emotional terms, what the songs belabor. But, thankfully, aside from Damon, there are no other celebrity voices.
The other big selling point is the artwork. The background art and western landscapes are stunning and offer a mix of painted scenes and computer-created scenery, although everything seems computer enhanced in one way or another. Most importantly, the film gives us a chance to savor the backgrounds. The characters don't zip around in constant frenetic motion the way they do in Disney movies. Although there are several chase scenes, the characters are just as likely to pause and connect with each other in movements reflecting naturalistic behavior. There are moments of gentleness, tenderness, curiosity, and discovery, so we get to see the space the characters are in and get to connect with it ourselves. There's a real palpable sense of environment and geography, of time and place, something rarely found in American animated features.
The character design is also well-done. The human characters all have solid, expressive, recognizable faces, strongly differentiated from each other. The horses are well designed also, looking like horses, but anthropomorphised enough to give them recognizable emotional responses. No character, human or animal, is exaggerated for cartoon effect.
The Music is superb and I love the track "Here I am by Bryan Adams"
We first meet them gambling riches for a map to El Dorado, the secret city of Gold. They win through creating. Therefore Tulio and Miguel devise an improvised escape leading them to hiding in barrels boarding a ship. When the captain discovers the stowaways he is not happy-but at nightfall the friends escape from captivity once again. This is when they become accustomed to their new friend, a horse. As the three pondering souls drift about the massive sea, they begin to lose hope. Just when everything seems hopeless, however, Tulio and Miguel hit the shore, which just so happens to be the island inheriting the road to El Dorado.
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