Ferdinand

I’ll be honest: my expectations for a movie starring a pro-wrestler as a flower-sniffing bull were somewhere between "mildly curious" and "prepared to be annoyed by fart jokes." I watched this on a Tuesday evening while eating a bowl of cereal that was about 90% marshmallows, and by the time the credits rolled, I was ready to personally apologize to every bovine I’ve ever seen.

The Gentle Giant of Blue Sky

There’s something inherently funny about John Cena—a man whose real-life biceps are roughly the size of my torso—voicing a character whose primary motivation is avoiding conflict. In the current era of "Franchise Fatigue" and gritty reboots, Ferdinand feels like a deliberate, sunny retreat. It’s a 2017 release from Blue Sky Studios, a company that unfortunately met its end after the Disney-Fox merger, and watching it now feels a bit like looking at a lost artifact of high-quality, non-Disney animation.

The film takes the 1936 children's book by Munro Leaf and stretches it into a 108-minute adventure. Usually, when a ten-page book gets the feature-length treatment, it feels like a thin piece of gum stretched until it snaps. But Carlos Saldanha (the director behind Ice Age and Rio) manages to build a world around Ferdinand that feels earned. We get to see Ferdinand as a calf, losing his father to the bullfighting ring, and finding sanctuary on a flower farm with a young girl named Nina. It’s sweet, perhaps a little saccharine for the cynical viewer, but I found myself leaning into the earnestness. "If you don't get a little misty-eyed during the cork tree scene, your heart might actually be a stone."

A Bull Out of Water (and Into a China Shop)

The real adventure kicks off when Ferdinand, now a literal ton of muscle, gets stung by a bee and accidentally trashes a flower festival. He’s branded a beast and shipped off to Casa del Toro—the very place he escaped as a calf. This is where the comedy elements really start to cook.

Kate McKinnon enters the fray as Lupe, a "calming goat" who is anything but calm. McKinnon is doing her classic, high-energy weirdness here, and it’s the perfect foil to John Cena’s low-key, baritone sincerity. The supporting cast is a bizarrely delightful mix: Anthony Anderson as the anxious Bones, Peyton Manning (yes, the quarterback) as the high-strung Guapo, and Bobby Cannavale as Valiente, the "alpha" bull who can’t understand why Ferdinand won’t just headbutt something.

The middle act is a classic "prison break" adventure, but the stakes feel different than your average heist movie. In an era where we’re constantly talking about toxic masculinity and what it means to be "tough," Ferdinand feels surprisingly relevant. It’s a story about a character who refuses to perform the violence everyone expects of him. It’s an adventure of the spirit as much as a physical escape from a trailer.

Stuff You Might Not Notice

While Ferdinand might look like just another bright, CGI distraction for kids, it carries a lot of historical weight that fans have obsessed over since its release.

The Banned Bull: The original book was actually banned by Francisco Franco in Spain and burned as "democratic propaganda" by Hitler in Germany. The film leans into this pacifist legacy without being preachy. The Disney Connection: Walt Disney himself made a short film of Ferdinand back in 1938, which won an Oscar. Blue Sky had a lot of pressure to live up to that classic silhouette. A "China Shop" Legend: The film features a sequence in a literal china shop. It’s a masterclass in physical comedy animation, and the animators reportedly studied how real bulls move to make the "gentle" movements look heavy but precise. The Hidden Triplets: The hedgehogs—Una (Gina Rodriguez), Dos, and Cuatro—are a running gag. When asked about "Tres," they simply refuse to talk about it. It’s a dark, weird little joke that I absolutely loved. Technological Glow: This was one of the first films to use Blue Sky’s proprietary "Light Transport" technology, which is why the Spanish countryside looks so sun-drenched and warm. It doesn’t have that "plastic" look some mid-tier CGI films suffer from. The Arena Reality: The filmmakers actually visited the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid to ensure the final showdown felt architecturally authentic, which adds a strange, somber weight to the climax.

The Contemporary Bullfight

Watching this in the post-pandemic landscape, there’s a certain charm to its simplicity. It doesn’t try to build a "Cinematic Universe," and it doesn’t rely on snarky meta-humor that winks at the adults every five seconds. It’s just a solid, well-told story about being yourself. "It’s a movie that believes in the power of a hug over a horn-jab, which honestly feels like a radical political statement these days."

The pacing is snappy, the colors are gorgeous, and the message—that you don't have to be what the world expects you to be—is handled with a light touch. It’s an adventure that ends not with a defeated villain, but with a shared understanding. In a world of explosions and high-stakes superhero battles, sometimes the most exciting thing you can do is sit under a tree and smell the flowers.

Ferdinand is a vibrant, big-hearted reminder of what Blue Sky Studios did best before they were absorbed into the Disney machine. It balances a classic "outcast" story with genuine Spanish flair and a voice cast that clearly had a blast. It’s not a world-altering masterpiece, but it’s a deeply pleasant way to spend two hours. If you're looking for a family film that has a bit more soul than your average talking-animal romp, this bull is definitely worth the squeeze.