Limelight Limelight: Born free! By Lubna Abdel-Aziz It is not unusual to have a crop of new feature films flooding the movie theatres for our summer viewing pleasure. What is unusual is the regularity with which the animated film has appeared and secured a prominent place on the list of annual studio productions. The box-office success of these cartoon features during the last decade has made it regular fare, all year long. This summer's offering is a magnificently animated film about a unique and admirable mustang, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Horses have always made interesting topics on the screen together with dogs. Man's special devotion to both animals has been superbly portrayed time and again on celluloid. Animals in general have been perennial favourites from "cats and mice" to "bears and whales", but the Lassies and the Flickas lead the pack. Producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks follows his phenomenal success of last year's Academy Award winning Shrek with a brand new story, unlike anything we've seen before, told by Hollywood animators. Horses are not the animator's favourite subject. They are notoriously difficult to draw and even more so to animate. That is why Spirit is the first animated film to feature a horse as its central character. It is a child- oriented tale of a colt born free to a mare in the old Wild West. Set against some of the most beautiful landscapes ever to grace a feature length cartoon, the colt will grow up to be Spirit, the heroic horse of the title. Spirit becomes the young leader of his herd of wild horses that roam free amid the mountains and meadows of the untamed American frontier. Its enchanted life is abruptly changed when US cavalry officers capture it and try to tame it. Spirit eventually escapes with the help of another captive, an Indian of the Lakota tribe named "Little Creek". At first, it seems that Spirit was only moved from one master to another, but he soon discovers he is able to run free again. Ultimately Spirit is an ode to freedom. It is also a nostalgic look at the open plains, grand canyons, towering buttes, roaring rivers with none of the entanglements of civilisation. It is a story of innocence lost and wisdom learned. Dreamworks animation team, led by former Disney cartoon boss Jeffrey Katzenberg (The Lion King) happily marry both traditional and hi-tech computer animation. More than 9 months in just the design stage, the film opens with a scene that carries the audience as it were on the wings of an eagle into the world of Spirit, flying across some of the most recognisable landmarks of the American west. What appears to be one long continuous shot, is comprised of seven parts in a perfect blending of hand drawn characters and traditionally painted backdrops. The complex shot requires literally thousands of traditional and digital elements, including 700 painted backgrounds, 2,500 drawings, 1,800 painted elements and 12,000 frames of computer- generated elements and the final version involved 4,183 film frames. The result is a remarkable sequence that gives the illusion of one continuous camera move taking the audience on an epic journey across the American frontier. The film was basically shot as a silent movie with narration, music and song recorded after its completion. The characters communicate their feelings with conventional whinnies and other horses' noises. Oscar winning actor, Matt Damon provides the first person narrative and the voice for the character of Spirit at the pivotal points of the story. Seven-time Academy nominated and Grammy award winner, Bryan Adams wrote the songs and Oscar winner Hans Zimmer (Lion King, Gladiator), composer of 70 feature film scores, wrote the haunting music to this magnificent production. It proves once again why animation is such a perfect medium for children, allowing them to enter a new world and embrace it. It is a first rate family entertainment vehicle, touching the hearts of children and adults, bringing spectators to the edge of their seats. The history of man and horse goes back millions of years when man took his first steps towards civilisation. Horses have served as comrades to men on the war-torn field of battle. They provided him with the fastest and surest way to travel on land, until the advent of the "iron horse" (train) and the "horseless carriage" (automobile). Today children and adults ride horses for fun and exercise and crowds still thrill to the excitement of horse races. Horses are eager to please, they learn to dance, obey orders and respond to signals. They rank among the most intelligent of animals, though apes and monkeys, ocean mammals, dogs and cats, rank higher. Ranking 4th are the hoofed animals such as elephants, horses and pigs. Amongst hoofed animals the pig ranks higher than the horse or elephant. The romance between man and horse has been glorified in books and poems, on canvas and on the small and large screens. Several films come to mind in recent years as well as classics half a century old -- National Velvet (1944), Black Beauty (1976) and My Friend Flicka (1942). Some memorable treatments such as Equus (dir Sidney Lumet), a screen adaptation of Peter Shaffer's immensely successful play with Richard Burton as the psychiatrist who treats a disturbed young boy and his strange and passionate love/hate attachment to horses. The most recent horse film, Horse Whisperer (1998) based on the best seller by Nicholas Evans, tells the compelling story of a 14- year-old girl who suffers a terrible accident while riding her prized horse. The mother seeks the help of a horse healer who treats the troubled horse from the trauma of the accident (dir Robert Redford). Of all the horse movies The Black Stallion, 1978, has been called "the greatest children's movie ever made". Based on the 1941 book by 26 year old Walter Farley, the book enthralled readers so much that the young writer devoted his whole life to writing novels about the Black Stallion and other horses. Millions of books were sold in 20 languages and 2 successful movies based on them were produced. In 50 years none of the Stallion novels has ever gone out of print. Renowned film critic, the late Pauline Kael expressed her enthusiasm thus: "It is one of the rare movies that achieve a magical atmosphere; seeing it is like being carried on a magic carpet, you don't want to come down." The story revolves around a shipwreck that leaves a young boy on a deserted island with a wild stallion. Boy and stallion learn to trust and love each other and together they establish a friendship that lasts a lifetime. Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron, is the most recent tale of man and horse, a classic family film in the old fashioned sense. Its visual imagery and its natural landscape, so real and intense transforms it into a tale of mythological proportions. It was chosen to be showcased at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, just as Dreamworks' Shrek was presented last year creating tremendous excitement. Producer Katzenberg believes that "no computer should ever replace the hands or artistry that is unique to traditional animation". Despite its hand painted qualities Spirit is the most technologically complex animated film to date, combining traditional with computer animation. In Spirit we find the unmistakable rediscovery of the emotional sources of mystery and enchantment, as we follow Spirit's galloping defiance over the plains, his courtship and love for the pretty mare "Rain" and his ultimate triumph over every adversity. The theme of Spirit is about never letting anyone bend or break you -- a theme that resonates in all of us. The value of freedom beats in the heart of every man, and every animal. Spirit is surely destined to join the golden stable of beloved horse classics like National Velvet, Black Stallion, and now Spirit the unbroken Stallion of the Cimarron.
