DIRECTOR: Carlos
Saldanha VOICE CAST: John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby
Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, David
Tennant SCREENPLAY: Robert L. Baird, Tim
Federle, Brad Copelandy STORY: Ron Burch,
David Kidd, Don Rhymer BASED ON: The
Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Robert Lawson PRODUCERS: John Davis, Lisa
Marie Stetler, Lori Forte, Bruce Andersonn GENRE: Animation, Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy,
Family MUSIC BY: John Powell EDITED BY: Harry Hitner
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Renato Falcão PRODUCTION
COMPANY: Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation, Davis Entertainment DISTRIBUTED
BY: Warner Bros. F.E. (Philippines) COUNTRY:
United States LANGUAGE: English RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 51 minutes
Technical assessment:
4
Moral assessment:
4
CINEMA rating:
V13 (Ages 13 down with parental
guidance)
MTRCB rating:
GP
Ferdinand the calf
is not aware that bulls are sent to the ring to fight for their lives until he
loses his father, a champion bull, who never returns from a bullfight. At the breeding stable Ferdinand (who loves
to sniff flowers) is bullied by other calves but he refuses to be intimidated;
he is provoked but he’d rather sit it out. He is rudely told, “Fight! If you don’t fight, you’re meat!” Seeing this truth he soon escapes and lands
providentially in a flower farm where a little girl Nina (Lily Day) and her
single father adopt him as a pet. In
this loving environment Ferdinand (John Cena) grows into a bull of monstrous
proportions but is (un)naturally non-violent. When he follows Nina and her
father to a local flower festival, mayhem begins.
An adaptation of
the 1936 classic by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson, “The Story of Ferdinand”,
this message-movie is a first rate animation that’s made to appeal to viewers
of any age. To make the 36-page book
into a full-length feature film, screenwriters Baird, Federle and Copelandy pad
it up with the antics of secondary characters like a resourceful hedgehogs who
help Ferdinand escape captivity, bitchy Lipizzaner horses with pastel-colored
manes, and a slightly unhinged goat (Kate McKinnon) acting as his coach to train
him to face the famous matador El Primero (Raul Esparza) in the bullring. Pastoral
landscapes are both eye candy and soul soothers, while the scenes in the “chop shop”
(a high tech slaughterhouse) might spoil your enjoyment of your next burger
meal.
Ferdinand in promotional posters carries the slogan “built to fight, born to
love”, which, though probably unintentional, forms the solid foundation for this
fable. Children who may be experiencing
bullying in school or peer pressure in the community may find especially
applause-worthy the bullring scenes showing how Ferdinand sticks to his commitment
to non-violence in the face of life-threatening odds. Adults will get Ferdinand’s message about
corruption in bullfights and logically conclude that the same thing can happen
in boxing, basketball, or other sports event, although the best take-home
message here is, between the slaughterhouse and the bullring, there is a way
out: the commitment to love. Humans,
take note.
