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MOVIE REVIEW: Ferdinand

Garth Cremona (RIP)

The story of a bull who would rather live freely and smell some beautiful flowers than fight in the bull ring.  Animation from Fox, probably one of the last that won’t have A Disney Company logo alongside it, where Ferdinand starts as a young timid bull living on a bull ranch avoids the fighting of his fellow youngsters, and just wants a peaceful life.  His Father is sent to the Bull Fights and never returns.  When Ferdinand sees that his future is set in stone if he stays in the Ranch he escapes and finds a loving home with a young girl and her florist father.  Years pass and through a nasty bee sting Ferdinand causes a lot of damage to the village and is sent back to the ranch.

The day before I got to see Ferdinand there was the Star Wars: The Last Jedi press show so I was expecting that after the slightly darker Science Fiction space opera we were going to get a light and funny.  In some ways it was light and funny, but in a lot of ways the darkness of real life is there, right in your face and a thought came across my head through the entire running time.  That thought was for the parents who are going to bring their children to see Ferdinand rather than experience a Galaxy Far, Far Away.  I understand why, some children have no interest in the Star Wars films, and some parents don’t want to bring their kids to the film as they don’t love their children enough.  Sad.  But also there are going to be some awkward questions coming from the children to the parents about the lives of the bulls.  The real life Bull Fighting, and Meat Industry, are all brought straight up to the face of the audience and the Director/Writers aren’t afraid, good or bad, to make children face these facts.

The darkness of reality aside, lets talk about the film, which is really enjoyable.  But there are a few problems with animation glitches, and character design, they seem to run out of human characters and simply give the same character designs different clothes or a hat.  Also most of the animal characters have American voices, even though the script constantly reminds us that we’re in Spain, but that’s to be expected too, I guess.

Now the film, if you don’t notice these things, which a child or most adults who will be going with youngsters won’t, will be pretty enjoyable for most of the running time.  The animal character design is bright and cheerful for the most part, and the script will keep children entertained for the running time.  There are some beautiful scenery animations.  I also laughed out loud on a few moments of great comedy, but as I always say, if you can count the laughs on a comedy then there is a problem.

Darkness in animation is fine, as the new Fox owners Disney know, look at some of the early Disney animation and even Toy Story.  Children can handle the darkness and adults have the responsibility to explain the reality to those children that can handle the truth. It’s just that the reality of the bull fights and the meat industry may cause more conversations than your comfortable with.   If this film wanted to make a statement about the bull fighting and meat industry it didn’t get there.  I went and had a burger and then googled where in Spain there were still bull fights going on directly after the screening.  Outside their moral stand point, I don’t know if this is the animation that you want to take your Children to during the Holidays, or whatever you want to call the last two weeks of the year, but there is enough that will keep them entertained.  The German Horses dance off was worth it for me.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writers: Munro Leaf (based on the book by), Robert Lawson (based on the book by) |6 more credits »
Stars: John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Cannavale & more… See full cast & crew

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Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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