Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

The boldest and best decision the filmmakers made was to not have their horses talk. Though Matt Damon provides an ongoing internal monologue, the horse-hero is not “Mr. Ed” or the usual humanoid half-animal we’ve come to expect from the animated world, In this sense, this is somewhat like a silent film.

As an experiment in character animation, it is also very impressive. Horses are notoriously difficult to animate (which is why there had never been an animated horse movie before), but they come off here with poetic realism, as creatures of body and soul, with every movement an exercise in exhilarating beauty.

Its genre should be action. There’s are uncountable scenes here — stampedes, a train wreck, Spirit caught in river rapids and leaping through the air from atop a plateau – making it as exciting as any breathless Jacky-Chan action movies.

But the film also works emotionally, pulling us into its character’s fate. It also displays all the little scenes that have made mankind fall in love with horses through the ages. The movie’s beauty lies in the fact that is “clear”, not junked up with the Eddie Murphy character, flatulence jokes and subtle design to be a Broadway musical. It’s that rare big Hollywood movie made from the heart.

It’s classic animation wedded to modern technology – painted pictures that move in magical splendor. The movie’s big action scenes, at times, make you forget you’re even watching animation. There’s an in-your-face sequence involving a runaway, crashing train that will make you squirm in your seat trying to get out of the way. It is basically an enchanting fairy tale made with simple, elegant conviction.

The animators have re-created equine movement and behavior with uncanny verisimilitude. It is nearly impossible to create horse behaviour with such truth. The movie is truly extraordinary.