Spirit : Stallion Of The Cimarron
Spirit, a wild mustang stallion, gets caught by U.S. cavalrymen and gallantly refuses to be broken.
Story
Spirit (voiced by Matt Damon) is a wild mustang horse and the leader of his herd. He is rambunctious and carefree, but it is his curiosity that gets him into trouble. One day, Spirit sees some flickering lights far off in the distance and decides to investigate this phenomenon. As he approaches the makeshift teepees around the campfire, he sees something he has never seen before: humans. Intrigued, Spirit gets a little closer but inadvertently wakes the men up. Despite putting up a tough fight, Spirit is caught and taken to some sort of army camp lead by an evil Custer-type Colonel (voiced by James Cromwell) who tries to break him. But with the help of a Lakota brave named Little Creek (voiced by Daniel Studi) who is also being held prisoner, they escape and gallop off into the sunset. Spirit, however, has a long way to go before he can be reunited with his herd. He escapes only to be recaptured, only to escape again, only to be recaptured again, and so on. It's exhausting.
Acting
The horses in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron don't actually talk, but neigh and whinny a lot. What we do hear, however, are their thoughts. Matt Damon (Ocean's Eleven) is the voice of Spirit, who also narrates the film, but does not bring anything special to the voice. In fact, Spirit always sounds a little naïve and clueless for a leader. Little Creek is fittingly voiced by Daniel Studi (Crazy Horse). One of the most endearing factors in the film is the fact that Little Creek and Spirit have really good chemistry, if that's possible in an animated feature. The voice of the Colonel is done by James Cromwell (Space Cowboys). Although he is appropriately stern-voiced, there is nothing discerning about the Colonel's longhaired and mustached character. If he wasn't riding at the front of the cavalry all the time, he would almost be indistinguishable from the others.
Direction
With Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, DreamWorks decided to go back to what is now considered traditional animation; that is, drawing figures by hand with computer-effected backgrounds, rather than relying on entirely computer-generated animation. The result is breathtaking, especially the Old West imagery and scenes where Spirit gets caught in white water, complete with underwater views of him swimming. Although the movie is well done, the story is a little bland and lacks imagination (there is, however, an exciting bit when Spirit tries to outrun a speeding train down a steep mountain). Perhaps I have forgotten what is like to be young, but I have a hard time accepting horses that smile, bat their eyelashes when they want something and share a sort of language through the inflection of their neighing. But despite the horse's cutesy ways and lame story, Spirit will definitely appeal to children.
Bottom Line
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron certainly proves that traditional animation can be just as visually stunning as any computer animated feature. While the visuals may be rich and intimate, the story is a little preachy and characters very simplistic.