Spirit: Stallion With Too Much Inner Monologue

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was an animated film by Dreamworks Animation that came out in 2002. The plot follow the life of titular character, Spirit, a wild stallion in New Mexico during the 1800s. The movie featured a mix of beautiful hand-drawn animation and 3D special effects and environments. At the time of its release, it created quite a stir in the Furry fandom and inspired many fan artists in the years following.

While a good movie and an enjoyable movie, there is one thing that keeps it from being a truly great movie. That thing is Matt Damon's narration.

In addition to Mr. Damon's lack of a voice suited for extended narrative monologues, the decision to include narration at all in the film was a huge blunder on the part of the directors, Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook. The animation is clear and vivid with regards to Spirit's facial expressions, as well as those of the other non-talking animal characters. There is no time in the film when Spirit's thoughts are not clear from simply looking at him. The same holds true for real-life animals, even; why would an animated animal, capable of gestures not possible in the real world, need a voice as well?

The answer is a simple fact that ends up spoiling many animated features: Spirit is dumbed down for kids. Or worse, it is dumbed down for the miscalculated expectation of a kid's intellect. Even if the film were watched with the sound cut out, I really doubt the average child would have any trouble whatsoever following the story. Moreover, Matt Damon's scratchy nasal tones step all over the delicate subtleties of the animators' work. The curve of an eyebrow, the pull of a lip... all beautifully rendered and captured in the film's lines and colors. When Spirit becomes enraged, teeth bared in a snarl, eyes slitted in fury, body bristling with tension--a flat-pan quip of "I was angry," is like a punch in the artistic kidneys. What could have been a grand masterpiece of animation was ruined by the directors' choice to K.I.S.S.: Keep It Simple for Stupids.

In short, Spirit gets 5 stars on mute, but only 3 stars with sound. As seems to be a common motif of work involving Mr. Damon, Spirit would have been a wonderful movie--except that he was in it.