Ferdinand

Coming at the tail end of a highly disappointing year for mainstream animated films, Ferdinand is no Coco, but it's pleasant enough for what it is.  This is a gentle and warm-hearted movie that features a bright look, and some strong voice acting.  The only knock against it is a lengthy middle portion where nothing really happens, and where the six credited story and screenwriting people seem to be uncertain how to adapt the original book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson to feature length.

When we first meet Ferdinand, he's a runty calf in a herd who live for locking horns, and who all dream of one day growing up to be powerful bulls who will participate in the bull fight and do battle with the world's greatest matador, El Primero (voice by Miguel Angel Silvestre).  Ferdinand, however, is a gentle soul who doesn't care about fighting, and only wants to protect a small red carnation that is growing in one corner of the bull pen.  When Ferdinand's father (Jeremy Sisto) is chosen by El Primero to participate in the next fight and doesn't come back, the little calf runs away and eventually finds himself on a flower-laden farm, where a little girl named Nina (Lily Day) cares for him and treats him as her best friend.  Over the years, Ferdinand grows up to be a massive and stocky bull (now voiced by professional wrestler John Cena, giving a thoroughly charming performance), but despite his intimidating appearance, his favorite pastime is to sit under a tree in the fields and smell the many flowers.

Ferdinand's docile life ends when he sneaks away from the farm in order to visit the Flower Festival that is going on in a nearby village.  The people are naturally scared of Ferdinand, and when he is accidentally stung by a bee, he unwillingly goes on a rampage through the streets, leading the townspeople to think he's a wild and dangerous animal.  Ferdinand is captured and shipped away on a truck back to the bull ranch where he originally came from.  El Primero is back to look at the bulls for his next (and final) fight, and while all the other bulls are vying to be picked, Ferdinand just wants to find a way to escape and get back to Nina.  While on the ranch, he befriends a snaggletoothed and goofy goat named Lupe (Kate McKinnon, very funny here, and obviously improvising most of her dialogue), and tries to convince his fellow bulls that there is a better life outside of the ranch, and that if they are picked to fight, they are not likely to come back.

The first half of Ferdinand, depicting his life on the farm with Nina is when the film is at its sweetest and most winning.  When he is forced to return to the bull ranch, the movie slowly but surely becomes a lot more aimless, before picking up again during the third act, where Ferdinand is forced to fight in the ring with El Primero.  The problem with the middle section of the film is that the filmmakers clearly don't know how to expand on the story, so they rely on a lot of gags and unnecessary scenes, such as when all the bulls have a dance off with some snooty German horses who live in the pen next to theirs.  There's very little momentum during these moments, and while it never becomes boring, we can definitely tell that these scenes exist simply to fill time.  The fact that in 1938, Walt Disney made an eight minute animated short that told the entire story of Ferdinand successfully is enough to tell you that maybe there just wasn't enough meat to the story to fill a full animated feature, and the writers struggled to find ways to hold up the interest of the audience.

What does keep the movie afloat during the problematic midsection is the strong voice acting and charming characters.  John Cena may seem like an odd choice to voice the gentle titular character, but he is immediately winning here, and is probably one of the better voice acting performances I've heard this year.  He is backed up by a strong supporting cast, which includes Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Anderson, football star Peyton Manning and David Tennant (from TV's Doctor Who) as his fellow bulls who only care about proving they have what it takes to battle the matador.  There is also a trio of hedgehogs who live on the ranch (voiced by Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs and Gabriel Iglesias) who are kind of cute, and are named Una, Dos and Cuatro.  When Ferdinand reasonably asks what happened to Tres, the three little hedgehogs bow their heads mournfully and sadly replay, "We do not speak of Tres".

But it is Kate McKinnon as Lupe, Ferdinand's main animal sidekick, who steals the show whenever she is on screen.  She brings a certain manic energy that livens a lot of moments that would probably be deadly dull without her.  Maybe the filmmakers do rely on her just a little too much, but her character never becomes annoying, nor does she hijack the movie and draw attention away from Ferdinand.  And things do finally pick up again during the last half hour, which includes a bizarre but funny chase scene where the bulls try to escape and keep a low profile in the city streets.  It also has a couple truly funny slapstick sequences, such as a scene where Ferdinand finds himself stuck in a china shop.  Even if the movie doesn't always work as well as it should, it does consistently have a certain charm to it, and there is enough that works here to recommend it for family audiences. 

Of course, there's the whole issue that the movie is opening directly up against The Last Jedi, which I feel is a mistake.  I understand, they wanted to stay far away from Pixar's latest, but I can't imagine many children picking this over the latest in the Star Wars saga.  Maybe very little children will.  Despite the PG rating, this is as gentle and as sweet as a modern animated film can get, and there's nothing here that offends.  Ferdinand may not end up being very memorable to anyone over the age of eight, but its heart is in the right place, and is good enough for what it is.

0 comments