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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Movie Poster
Directed by	Lorna Cook Kelly Asbury
Produced by	Jeffrey Katzenberg Mireille Soria Executive Producer: Max Howard
Written by	John Fusco
Narrated by	Matt Damon
Starring	Matt Damon James Cromwell Daniel Studi Chopper Bernet Jeff LeBeau
Music by	Hans Zimmer Bryan Adams
Editing by	Clare De Chenu
Studio	Stardust Pictures
Distributed by	Dreamworks SKG
Release date(s)	May 24, 2002 (2002-05-24)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Gross revenue	$122,563,539

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is a 2002 animated film that was released by DreamWorks. It follows the adventures of a young Mustang stallion.

Plot

After a brief introduction featuring an eagle and the mustang's homeland (which resembles Yellowstone National Park, and is likely to be Cimarron County), there is a scene showing the birth of a Buckskin Kiger Mustang, who is the main protagonist, Spirit. His mother is known as Esperanza - a beautiful palomino mare. His father, Strider, is never shown in the actual movie, although he is seen in photos to be pure black (as his mother is yellow and white mixed with black, creating yellow and black; although this probably wasn't thought out by the animators). He grows into a stallion, and assumes the role as leader of the herd. As leader, he defends two foals from a cougar.

Spirit is a grand leader with a serious mischievous streak and a high sense of curiosity. Spotting a camp one night not far from his herd, the stallion is unable to control his curiosity and moves towards it, as he's never seen humans before. Against his mother's wishes, he goes to investigate anyways, thus beginning his journey. To Spirit's surprise, the humans (cowboys or horse-traders) are vicious. After a long chase, he is captured and taken to a US cavalry post. During this time in the movie, the army is fighting the Indian Wars and colonizing the soon-to-be western United States. There he encounters a Colonel (based on Colonel Custer; in the film he is known simply as "The Colonel"). He sees the stallion as a symbol of the West, which he is setting out to conquer. So, the Colonel attempts to conquer the mustang too. Spirit is not tamed easily and manages to outwit all who attempt to ride him. Not pleased with this, The Colonel orders the horse to be tied to 'the post' for three days, without food or water.

During this time, a Lakota American Indian named Little Creek is also brought into the fort and held captive. After being thrown a knife over the fence by a Lakota tribe member, Little Creek quickly hides it just as the bugle at dawn sounds. This marks the end of the three days and the Colonel decided to attempt to break Spirit himself. Spirit seems at first to have given up in exhaustion, but his wild spirit seems to return and he manages to throw the Colonel off and escape with Little Creek. The rest of the horses are intentionally freed in the process. Little Creek's own mare, Rain, gallops up beside them and, while Spirit is distracted Little Creek and the other Indians with him loosely capture Spirit.

After a failed attempt at mounting the mustang, Little Creek ties him and Rain together. Rain shows Spirit her world of the Lakota village. Spirit begins to understand their ways and grows close to the mare. His affections for Rain, however, do not soften his yearning to be free.

At the end of this time Little Creek decides that Spirit should never be tamed and frees him. However this occurs just before an attack on the Lakota village by an Army regiment led by the Colonel, in which Rain is shot by the Colonel and falls into a river. Spirit is determined to save her, and falls over a waterfall with her in his attempt. They survive, but Rain is injured and on the brink of dying. Spirit is captured, yet again, by the Army. After finding Rain just as they lead Spirit away, Little Creek is determined to free the mustang once and for all, and follows the men who captured the stallion after tending to his own mare.

Spirit and some other Indian horses are put on a train and taken to the work site of the Transcontinental Railroad, where they are put to work pulling the locomotive engine up a mountain. As he and many other horses are dragging the locomotive up a mountain, Spirit realizes that if the track extends along its present course, it will infringe on his homeland. Spirit tricks the humans once again and, with the aid of the other horses, breaks free from the steam engine and causes it to fall down the steep incline they had been moving on. The locomotive rolls down the hill, chasing Spirit all the way down. The engine collides into another locomotive, causing a boiler explosion which starts the camp and woods on fire. As fire erupts, the chain that had remained around Spirit's neck catches on a log while he was leaping over it, but he is freed by Little Creek before he strangled himself.

When he wakes in the morning, Spirit spends a short time playing in a lake and on the grass with Little Creek before the Colonel and his men find them. In desperation, Little Creek sends the mustang running. Realizing Little Creek is in danger, Spirit runs back and pushes Little Creek on his back.

During the climactic chase scene on the winding rock passages leading to the canyon, the two get trapped on a plateau. As the Colonel and his men get closer, there is no where to go unless they jump over a large gorge. In a spectacular leap of faith, the mustang and Little Creek jump across to the other side. The soldiers do not attempt to follow. The Colonel stops one of his men from shooting the two, and exchanges nods of respect with Spirit before they part.

After a brief celebration, Spirit races back to the rebuilt Lakota village with Little Creek still on his back, where he finds Rain still alive. The horses share a happy moment, and Little Creek, knowing it's for the best, sets Spirit-who-could-not-be-broken and Rain free, and they return to the wild herd. As they race back, the song "I Will Always Return" is played. Eventually, they meet up with his herd and Esperanza. The film ends with Spirit and Rain standing at the ledge, with the herd below. The camera then spans up to the eagle as he flies into the blindness of the sun.

Characters

• Spirit: a buckskin kiger mustang stallion. He serves as the protagonist of the film. In the outset of the movie, he is the leader of the Cimarron herd until he gets captured by an army of soldiers. Throughout his captivity, he is continually struggling to break free. He undergoes several adventures from contending with Army soldiers to meeting and befriending Indians on his quest to get home. He is only heard throughout the narrations of the film. He is voiced by Matt Damon.

• Colonel: The leader of a battalion of Army soldiers and the antagonist of the film. The Colonel plans to conquer the Indians. He makes numerous unsuccessful attempts to tame Spirit, and when Spirit escapes, he and his soldiers search for him. He is not pure evil, but he is a strict and occasionally cruel man. In the climax of the film, he and his soldiers pursue Spirit and Little Creek, but in the long run he is a big enough man to honor their courage. He is voiced by James Cromwell.

• Little Creek: a Lakota who befriends Spirit. He is voiced by Daniel Studi.

• Rain: Little Creek's pet American Paint Horse and Spirit's love interest. She has a significant brown spot on her right cheek, and is a brown and white paint mare. She seems shy, yet mischievious and kind.

• Esperanza: Spirit's mother; a cream palomino who seems to be leader of the herd at the time of Spirit's birth (because it was mentioned, or thought, that Strider died sometime around his son's birth).

Animation and sound

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was made over the course of four years using a conscious blend of traditional hand-drawn animation and computer animation in a technique the film's creators dubbed "tradigital animation." DreamWorks purchased a horse as the model for Spirit and brought the horse to the animation studio in Glendale, California for the animators to study. In the sound department, recordings of real horses were used for the sounds of the many horse characters' hoof beats as well as their vocalizations. None of the animal characters in the movie speak English beyond occasional reflective narration from the protagonist mustang (voice of Matt Damon). Many of the animators who worked on Spirit also worked on Shrek 2, and their influence can be seen in the horses in that film, such as Prince Charming's horse from the opening sequence and Donkey's horse form. The movie was also present in the Disney animated feature Home on the Range, where a character refers to Buck as "Stallion of the Cim-moron".

The instrumental score was composed by Hans Zimmer, with songs from Bryan Adams. The opening theme song for the movie is "Here I Am" written by Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters, and Hans Zimmer. It was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Another song, which was not included in the film itself (although it can be heard in the ending credits), is "Don't Let Go", which was sung by Bryan Adams with Sarah McLachlan on harmonies and piano. It was written by Bryan Adams, Gavin Greenaway, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and Gretchen Peters. Many of the songs and arrangements are set in the American West, with themes based on love, landscapes, brotherhood, struggles, and journeys. Garth Brooks was originally supposed to write and record songs for the film but the deal fell through.

Many of the scenes used for the song of "I Will Always Return" were taken from the earlier parts of the movie to "This Is Where I Belong". A good example of this is when Spirit and Rain are standing on the hill. That was taken directly from the earlier part of the movie, but there were some slight modifications.

The original soundtrack was released in May 2002 and contains fifteen songs.^[1] A special edition version was released in July 2002 and contains one extra song.^[2]

Soundtrack listing

Music by Hans Zimmer, songs by Bryan Adams

1. Here I Am (End Title)
2. I Will Always Return
3. You Can't Take Me
4. Get Off My Back
5. Brothers Under the Sun
6. Don't Let Go (ft. Sarah McLachlan)
7. This Is Where I Belong
8. Here I Am
9. Sound The Bugle
10. Run Free
11. Homeland (Main Title)
12. Rain
13. The Long Road Back
14. Nothing I've Ever Known
15. I Will Always Return (Finale)
16. Where Do I Go From Here (Special Edition soundtrack)

Critical reception and legacy

Based on 117 ^[3] collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron has an overall "fresh" approval rating of 68 percent, with a weighted average score of 6.4/10. Top critic, Roger Ebert, said in ^[4] his review of the film, "Uncluttered by comic supporting characters and cute sidekicks, Spirit is more pure and direct than most of the stories we see in animation -- a fable I suspect younger viewers will strongly identify with."

The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.^[5]

Rain received an honorary registration certificate from the American Paint Horse Association (APHA), which has registered more than 670,000 American Paint Horses to date. She is the first animated horse to be registered by this organization.

Crew

Annie Awards

See also

• List of animated feature-length films

References

External links

• Official website
• Official website
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron at the Internet Movie Database
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron at Rotten Tomatoes
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron at Box Office Mojo