My Review of "Ferdinand"

I didn't think much of Ferdinand when I first saw the promo for the movie. It didn't really speak to me as it was supposed to be about a bull in Spain. There wasn't too much advertising for the movie so it also seemed to be a pretty low budget animated film.

It actually came to Netflix recently and I totally forgot about it. At first I thought it was a Netflix exclusive but then I remembered that it was in the theater at one time. So I decided to check it out.

This movie is about this fighting bull named Ferdinand obviously. In infancy he has a love for nature and in particular flowers. He's basically a pacifist growing up in an environment where he's supposed to be born and bred to fight. You have all his peers making fun of him because he doesn't like to fight.

One day his father is picked to fight a big matador fight and never comes back. This forces Ferdinand to go out and escape the confines of his old home. He soon finds himself in the care of a loving family that brings him over to their farm where they love him like a pet. Years go by and he grows into a monstrously huge bull. Not to give too much away but he eventually falls back into the bull fighting environment.

This movie has a ton of little lessons throughout the movie. Some of the lessons may be a little heavy handed but they're nice messages nonetheless. You can tell they try to tell us that fighting is not the way, friends are important and sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture to see what's really going on. There are also small messages of how eating meat is wrong and maybe we shouldn't have animals in captivity. I find some of those messages are a little convoluted when you think pets are okay when really they're animals in captivity as well.

The movie definitely has a little bit of a small budget feel to it despite the fact that it was animated very well. I thought the visuals were really nice and there were a lot of variety in the animated characters. The characters were charismatic and charming. They're the usual one dimensional characters you'd expect in animated movies. If it works then why change it right?

The voice acting cast does a good job in keeping the characters charisma and charm up. You can tell that John Cena plays the adult Ferdinand, his voice is too distinct. He does a fine job in giving Ferdinand a gigantic bull sound but was able to make him sound vulnerable. It was a good casting call and so was casting Kate McKinnon as his crazy goat sidekick.

The movie starts out pretty well paced but during the middle there were some pace issues. I'm not sure what happened but it seems a little muddled in the middle where you just go with the flow and things a ton of things happen and you don't really pay attention to what's going on. It's not boring but it seems a little muddy. Then they build up to a great ending to the movie.

Overall, I actually enjoyed this movie. I don't think this is the best animated movie but it's a good watch if you've run out of animated movies to watch. Sure there are a few scenes that remind you how low budget this movie is but there's entertainment here for the kids and adults alike. There are quite a few jokes in there geared towards adults that you don't really expect. I'll have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It's good enough to recommend to others looking for something new to watch.