“Spirit was probably the film I learned the most on. Spirit was a big learning experience for me. I’d done a few four-legged animals here and there, but I really didn’t get into the real heart of it until Spirit. That’s really why I wanted to do it. It’s like, I need to get to the heart of this matter if I’m going to be a complete animator.



“I’d done a few little horses pulling carts in Beauty and the Beast and some lions walking around in The Lion King, but to do the horse and really take it apart, to figure out the gates and get it enough into your system that you could then just animate it and have the horses do things that horses really can’t do, but make it look like they could do…you know? To just have the freedom to be able to animate an animal without having to rely on any live action for it, or to have it enough in your system that you could do it – that was the challenge and the joy of doing that film.”

– Animator James Baxter on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, via The Animation Podcast

Gorgeous GIFs via 2dtraditionalanimation, worksofadream and I’m not your handler