The 'Spirit' of a movie mogul

Katzenberg prime mover behind new animated film

Mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg plays along with Bryan Adams' band at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Jeffrey Katzenberg, the movie mogul co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, says he wanted to make an animated movie with an animal as the lead character. An admirer of horses -- "there's a majesty about them," he says -- he finally settled on a story about a wild horse named Spirit who comes of age during the taming of the American West.

There were a few catches, however. The film had to tell a multilayered tale. It had to be told through the horse's point of view. And the horse couldn't talk.

Not to mention that horses -- with their taut muscles, varying strides and range of expression -- are difficult to animate.

But when you're Jeffrey Katzenberg, you get what you want. And so "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," almost five years in the works, hits theaters Friday. The film features the narration of Matt Damon, the voices of James Cromwell (as a cavalry officer) and Daniel Studi (as a Lakota named Little Creek, who befriends the horse), and the songs of Bryan Adams.

But at the center of the film are the animated lines of Spirit the horse, a character whose personality partly came from an unlikely source: Bruce Willis in "Die Hard."

EXTRA INFORMATION Check out scenes from 'Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'    RESOURCES EW.com: All about Jeffrey Katzenberg

Katzenberg made the animators watch the latter film 10 times, he says. "The way [Willis] dealt with adversity and kept his sense of humor ... that attitude was inspiring," he says. Indeed, Katzenberg's nickname for the movie was "Die Horse."

The 'extra 5 percent'

In the film, Spirit begins as a wild mustang stallion in the American frontier. He's captured by settlers and sold to the Army, where Cromwell's officer tries to break him.

Instead, Spirit succeeds in escaping from the fort with Little Creek, who brings the horse back to his village. Spirit begins a romance with Little Creek's horse, Rain, but is recaptured and loaded onto a train -- the new "iron horse" -- while Rain is seriously wounded. True to his name, though, Spirit never gives in.

Matt Damon provides the first-person narration of "Spirit," the animated tale of a mustang stallion in the American West.

Katzenberg, Disney head Michael Eisner's one-time right hand, has a reputation as a tough customer -- he once wrote a highly critical, much-disseminated memo that became the talk of Hollywood -- but "Spirit's" directors, Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook, have nothing but praise for their producer.

"He is a partner," Asbury says. "He respects us, and we respect him back. That's why he's been so successful with animation over the years."

Katzenberg, when he was at Disney, was an advocate for films such as "Beauty and the Beast" and was instrumental in the making of last year's "Shrek" for DreamWorks.

"We care so much," Asbury adds, "but he cares even more than us. Where we would be satisfied, he wants an extra 5 percent."

Katzenberg would make suggestions about the smallest details, he says; in one scene, the producer asked that an eyebrow be cocked a little more. For a film in which the main character doesn't speak, "Those comments were invaluable."

And what of Katzenberg's dark side? "He didn't show us his dark side," Cook says. "He treats us the way artists wish they could be treated."

'It's the story, not the medium'

Charactor actor James Cromwell of "Babe" fame lends his voice as a cavalry officer determined to break Spirit.

Adams agrees. "He wants it to be great," the Canadian rocker says. "He phoned me every day just to check in, to see if there's anything I need. It's great to have someone with that kind of enthusiasm. It makes you work harder."

Still, the artists had their work cut out for them. Adams' roots-oriented, steak-and-potatoes songs have to carry the emotional voice of the picture; as he put it, "This is a musical."

And though "Spirit" is mostly done in the style of "classic" hand-drawn animation, the filmmakers made extensive use of computers as well. The opening scene, which showcases a number of Western landmarks from a bird's-eye view, took nine months to design alone in its combination of 2-D and 3-D elements.

Katzenberg calls the style "tradigital."

Even with all that technology, the film looks traditional -- which, in these days of computer-animated hits such as "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc.," may not be the best thing for its box-office grosses. Katzenberg, however, isn't concerned.

"It's not the technology," he says. "It's the story, not the medium."

Native American actor Daniel Studi does the voice of Little Creek, a young Lakota brave who befriends the horse.

Nor is he bothered that the movie opens in an extremely competitive summer movie season, with "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" and "Spider-Man" already out and "The Sum of All Fears," "Bad Company" and "Minority Report" to be released within a month.

"We're so different from those movies," he says, noting "Spirit's" G-rated appeal. "People are ready for something different."

Besides, the challenge of taking on blockbusters wouldn't faze Spirit the horse. Why should it get in the way of "Spirit" the movie?

Adversity "is something that all of us have to deal with," Katzenberg says. "Through the challenge of dealing with adversity, with hope and optimism and courage, [Spirit] is rewarded for that. And I think that's true of life. [Adversity] makes you smart and strong."