Trivia / Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

• Breakaway Pop Hit: Bryan Adams had a minor radio hit with the pop remix of "Here I Am," which still shows up on easy listening stations from time to time while the film has largely faded into obscurity.
• Creator Killer: This is the last time Jeffrey Katzenberg would attempt to directly write a story for a theatrical film. After his sitcom Father of the Pride bombed a couple of years later, he decided to remain strictly in his executive role. This is also the penultimate project for DreamWorks' traditional animation department before they shifted their focus exclusively to CGI beginning with Shark Tale.
• Cut Song: "Brothers Under the Sun" and "Nothing I've Ever Known". The music for both appears in the film proper, and they're on the soundtrack (and "Brothers Under the Sun" also plays at the very end of the end credits). "Nothing I've Ever Known," however, is not sung in the movie properly, not even in the credits; the instrumental version can be heard during Spirit and Rain's romance scenes.
• Enforced Method Acting: Possibly. During "Sound the Bugle," Bryan Adams' voice sounds very tired and scratchy.
• Referenced by...:
  • In The Boss Baby: Family Business, a man in a theater is watching Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron.
  • At one point in Home on the Range, Buck is mockingly referred to as the "Stallion of The Cim-moron" by Maggie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The over birds-eye shot near the end of the film in which we see Spirit jump the gorge was originally designed to have an eagle's shadow appear across Spirit to give the greater illusion of him flying, but it was deemed unnecessary and left out of the final cut. Making things more subtle and less blatant was probably the wiser course.
  • Rain was originally slated to be Killed Off for Real.
  • Tom Hanks and Robert Redford were considered for the narration.
  • Gene Hackman was considered for the role of the Colonel.
  • Garth Brooks was originally supposed to write and record the songs for the film, but the deal fell through.
  • The first version of the story was much darker, playing out in a manner very similar to Black Beauty with Spirit being passed from one owner to the next, each time ending up in a worse situation than he'd been in before. This culminated in him working in a mine with little to no chance to see daylight, and getting trapped underground with several other horses following a cave-in.
  • Another version of the story had the Colonel successfully break Spirit, who would then go on to serve as his mount for a time.
  • Spirit would originally have fought another stallion for his herd before it was changed to fighting a cougar to protect the foals instead. Brief animations of his fight with the stallion can be seen on Youtube.

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