This film is BS! A Bull Story…
Directed by Carlos Saldanha (the Rio franchise), Ferdinand is a new animated film made by Blue Sky Studios, the same company that gave us the Ice Age franchise. It is based on the 1936 short story, The Story of Ferdinand, written by Robert L. Baird. Starring John Cena, the film tells a story about a bull who does not like to fight.
Ferdinand is unlike the other calves. Instead of practicing bullfighting, he would rather smell roses instead. After escaping his facility, he meets the family of a young girl named Nina (Lily Day), who decides to take care of him. Now a grown bull (John Cena), Ferdinand still enjoys smelling flowers. However, a little mishap in the town festival caused people to mistake Ferdinand as a very wild bull. Returned to his former facility and pressured even more to become a fighting bull, Ferdinand finds a way to escape his current predicament.
I had an issue at the start of Ferdinand, especially most of the second act, because of its slow pacing (this film is only 108 minutes). When Ferdinand returned to his old home (facility), the first part of that segment never worked for me.
Also, most of the time, Lupe (Kate McKinnon) came out as very annoying and forced.
However, my outlook on the film just changed after one simple joke/pun. When the horses/bullies were knocked down in a dance off, one of them said, “I can’t giddyup!” And from that point, I just can’t look at the film objectively anymore. I just sat down and watched it as if I were still a kid. The jokes started to seem funnier; the action pieces got more entertaining; the supporting characters (especially the bulls) got way funnier.
Despite my confession of suspending my criticism, I did enjoy one particular exchange of shots between Ferdinand and El Primero (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), the bullfighter, before the climax of the film. It was beautifully done and very impactful.
Ferdinand is a simple film with a simple story. This is…
josephthereviewer 