Crossword Genius

A western with direction and animating? Marvellous! (3-9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

awe-inspiring

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'marvellous' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'a western with direction and animating?' is the wordplay.
'a western with' becomes 'aw' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'direction' becomes 'e' (E is an example).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'animating?' becomes 'inspiring' ('inspire' can be a synonym of 'animate').
'aw'+'e'+'inspiring'='AWE-INSPIRING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for awe-inspiring that I've seen before include "Breathtaking" , "Invoking wonder" , "Terribly impressive" , "Magnificent" , "Wondrous" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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