Animation Source Forums

(Keep in mind I have yet to see the entirety of this movie, I've only seen bits and pieces.)

Spirit is a unique animal-centric animated movie in that the animal protagonists don't speak. (This is not counting the very few voiceovers)

Would Spirit have had the same impact if the characters HAD spoken? Is it better or worse without human speech?

Well...if you see the whole movie(which I reccommend) I think you could say no,it would not, the makers planned originally not to let the horses talk(which makes a considerable amount of sense since they can't). I said in another topic,"the music spoke for the movie, it speaks for the horses as well. I can only imagine if they would talk it would probably have the same affect as one of Disney's many "talking animal" movies- not that I don't like Disney. I did however imagine what it would sound like if they did talk though,which might be a good idea for a fanfic.

The official reason why the horses don't talk is because it turned the film into a comedy.

I say fair enough!

I think that if the horses had talked the whole movie would have failed its purpouse. What the "muted" horses make you feel, also thanks to that wonderful soundtrack, is unique. In my opinion, there's no place for extra dialogues in this movie.

I agree with Wolf Isaac. You kind of learn and catch onto what the horses are feeling and really, on the whole, saying.

I like how they don't talk in the movie, but isn't it spirit narrating in the beginning?

I love how the horses didn't speak like normal animated movies, it made you feel more for the characters imo.

Mighty - Yeah he is, same with how Bryan Adams' songs narrate his feelings throughout the movie. c:

Ah, I don't have the movie, I only watched it on youtube.

I love how they don't speak. Not only does it allow you to feel what the horses feel through no more than their fantastic expressions, but it allows you to focus on the beautiful music of the film. They didn't need to speak at all. It made it all the more realistic, which I really love <3 Not many animation companies can pull that off. Kudos to DreamWorks :3

i think it would have been better if they had talked, but they do such a good job of talking with there eyes and faces that it wouldn't have mattered much

Well like you i haven't seen the whole movie but from what everyone is making it sound it doesn't sound bad. But that's just my opinion i'm more of a Balto guy to be honest

At the start of the movie, the first time I watched it in 2002, I think, I was initially disappointed that the horses didn't talk to one another with a spoken language, but the more you watch the movie the more you almost forget that they're not actually speaking to each other because, as has already been said, their facial expressions and the music speak for them. The further you get into the film, the more you tune into the body language and especially the facial expressions of the horses, and the less you find you actually need words at all. Spirit: SoTC used the horses' body language and facial expressions exceptionally well to tell the story, and I for one would love to see more animated films done that way. In fact, reading the reviews of the 2000 animated Dinsey film Dinosaur on Amazon, quite a few people said they would have enjoyed that movie more if the dinosaurs didn't speak to each other with words, but communicated through body language like the horses in Spirit instead.

Well, Spirit kind-of talked there xD Not like really talked as a horse but he narrated through all the movie. Other feelings were perfectly shown by face expressions, body language and songs.
It was very unique for child's (and American) movie that main characters didn't speak at all. This was a good brief or realism and a chance to try something new, making us concentrate more on character's behaviour, enviroment and music instead of dialogues. And this is probably why I love SSoTC so much.