Lorna Cook

Lore & Background

Lorna Cook co-directed *Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron*, a film that follows a Kiger mustang stallion named Spirit, who is captured during the American Indian Wars by the United States Cavalry. The filmmakers decided early on that the animal characters would not speak English; co-director Kelly Asbury opined that "the minute a horse talks, it's comedy" and that human actors would not be able to make the sounds of horses in a manner that the audience would take seriously. Cook and the production team traveled to the western United States to view scenic places for inspiration. The homeland of the mustangs and Lakotas is based on Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and the Teton mountain range; the cavalry outpost was also based on Monument Valley. Cook worked closely with writer John Fusco, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the artists over the course of four years.

In Their Own Story

The production team, consisting of Kelly Asbury, Lorna Cook, Mireille Soria, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathy Altieri, Luc Desmarchelier, Ron Lukas, and story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen took a trip to the western United States to view scenic places they could use as inspiration for locations in the film. Traveling to all those different places, they were reminded that "this is a magnificent country, so in some respects, it was a way for us to honor and to celebrate the grandeur in our own backyard." Geographically, they "kind of threw convention out the window. We took the best from nature and gave it our own spin, and ultimately it served the story well." The film premiered in the "Out of Competition" section at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2002.

Reader's Guide

Lorna Cook co-directed *Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron*, which was made over the course of four years using a conscious blend of traditional hand-drawn animation and computer animation. The film was produced by DreamWorks Animation, combining traditional animation and computer animation. In contrast to the anthropomorphic style of animal characters in other animated features, Spirit and his fellow horses communicate with each other through non-linguistic sounds and body language (albeit with many human facial expressions and reactions). Sound designer Tim Chau was dispatched to stables outside Los Angeles to record the sounds of real horses; the final product features real hoof beats and horse vocals that were used to express their vocalizations in the film. Screenwriter Fusco wrote narration as a guide for the animators, but most of this was not used so as not to anthropomorphize the characters: what little remained in the film is voiced by Matt Damon.

Did You Know?

• Lorna Cook co-directed *Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron* with Kelly Asbury.
• The film was made over the course of four years using a blend of traditional hand-drawn and computer animation.
• Cook and the production team traveled to Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and the Teton mountain range for inspiration.
• The filmmakers decided early on that the animal characters would not speak English.
• The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2002.