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May 17, 2002/Sivan 6, 5762, Vol. 54, No.35
'Spirit' teaches appreciation of freedom
LEISAH NAMM
Assistant Editor
A horse is a horse, of course, but the lead character in Dream-work's new film "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" is no Mr. Ed.
The film, which opens in Valley theaters Memorial Day weekend, follows the adventures of Spirit, a wild mustang stallion who encounters man for the first time and defies being broken.
Set in the American West, the film's main theme is freedom.
"Making animated movies is an opportunity to have a theme," producer Jeffrey Katzenberg explains during a recent visit to Phoenix. "It's not an obligation, but it is an opportunity."
Katzenberg, who co-founded Dreamworks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in 1994, says the purpose of the film was initially to help people appreciate freedom, a concept made more relevant with today's world turmoil. "When you see what's going on in the Middle East today, you understand how blessed we are in this Western civilization to have the freedom that we have," he says.
Early on in production, which started four years ago, Katzenberg and team decided that the animals wouldn't talk - to prevent the film from becoming a comedy. "I have two words and four letters: Mr. Ed," he says. "The moment a horse starts talking, you laugh."
Instead, the story is told through narration - actor Matt Damon provides the voice for Spirit's thoughts through first-person narrative - and music, written by Hans Zimmer and rocker Bryan Adams.
With the exception of horse sounds, "Spirit" was filmed as a silent movie, with the narration, music and songs being recorded after the animation was complete, according to press materials.
"We have a saying in animation," Katzenberg says. "If you can see it instead of say it, then do it. This is the ultimate test of that theory."
A second theme of the film is adversity, which "is part of everybody's life," Katzenberg says. "I thought it would be great to do a story about how a character deals with adversity with total optimism and total courage and is rewarded for it."
When discussing the character of Spirit with animators, he referenced John McClane, Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard." "He is a totally indomitable spirit in that movie," Katzenberg says. "He is a guy whose optimism and courage are the sort of essence of who he is."
Katzenberg says the inspiration for the film came from an encounter he had several years ago. "I remember looking into the eyes of a horse and I felt like there was a soul in there," he says. "It's just one of those things that has stayed with me over the years."
His last animated movie told through the eyes of an animal, "The Lion King," was released about 10 years ago and he felt like it was time to do another. He chose horses because "horses are among the most beautiful animals in the world. ... There's something just very noble and majestic about them."
However, he knew that horses were difficult to animate, due to their long, inflexible spines, a defined musculature seen in their every movement and a wide range of gaits. The entire animation crew joined in an intensive crash course in equine anatomy, movement, locomotion and behavior at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center.
In the making of "Spirit," animators used a new technique that combines traditional animation with digital animation - a term Katzenberg calls "tradigital."
With regard to character animation in a 2-D film - using traditional animation - computer rendering was primarily used for background. In "Spirit," the lead characters, including Spirit, are sometimes computer animated. In fact, there are some transitions from computer to traditional animation involving a single character in a single scene.
"What it represents to me is taking that aspect of the old and basically reinventing it into the 21st century," Katzenberg says. "It has all of the things that I think an audience visually now expects, if not demands, of an animated movie."
However, Katzenberg, who produced the Academy Award-winning "Shrek," points out that computer animation shouldn't replace traditional 2-D animation altogether and uses the analogy of comparing e-mail to a handwritten letter.
"As humans, we actually put something of ourselves in the way we write and draw things and our personalities come through in it and that is something a computer can't do," he says.
Katzenberg states in a press release: "In many ways, (the film is) very much an allegory for all of us ... particularly today, when challenges have been put in front of us we never expected. But first and foremost, this is a piece of entertainment. It has everything: adventure, humor, suspense, romance. ... It's a classic hero's journey - the hero just happens to be a horse."
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