Runtime: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Quick Impressions:
Early on, Ferdinand treats us to a metamorphically magical moment when while frolicking in the flowers, our newly enormous hero accidentally inhales a caterpillar, then sneezes out a butterfly. At that moment, I suddenly realized that I am Ferdinand. No, I’m not a giant bull, and no I don’t sneeze butterflies (though I would die to have that super power), but I do prefer frolicking in the meadow to blood sports, and I am much smaller and younger on the inside than I probably appear. (Based on my hobbies, I’d say I’m somewhere around ten and a half.)
To the casual observer, Ferdinand seems enormous (maybe even threatening), but in his heart, he is still a gentle young calf who loves nature and (I think it’s safe to say) devotes far more time than average to giving CPR to bunnies.
This is a sweet story, and children should like it. I’m not sure the classic picture book needed to be stretched into a feature length film, but at a not-at-all-taut 108 minutes, Ferdinand still feels shorter than that interminable Frozen cartoon before Coco. This is by no means a masterpiece, probably not even one of the best animated films in the unusually weak field offered this calendar year. But my eight-year-old daughter consistently enjoyed it, and her crazy little brother only had to be forcibly removed from the auditorium once, which for him was pretty good.
The Good:
Afterward, we asked my two-year-old what he liked best about the movie. After mulling the question over for some time, he answered very seriously, “I liked Ferdinand.”
And he’s right. Ferdinand himself is the best part of Ferdinand. That’s also the most delightful surprise of the whole movie. Wrestler-turned-actor John Cena gives an amazingly strong turn as Ferdinand, making the gentle bull soulful and sweet, so sympathetic and consistently compelling.
The movie is kind of slow starting, but once our hero grows up a little and Cena begins voicing him, we forgive all the film’s little imperfections because of the strength of that lead performance. I’ve never had anything against John Cena, but his work here makes me think I’ve been underestimating him as an actor. His performance is what makes the movie work.
More surprisingly, football legend Peyton Manning (as opposed to the other Peyton Manning) voices a character, too, and gives a pretty decent performance himself. The voicework of the main group of bulls is all quite good. Aside from the ones I’ve mentioned, Bobby Cannavale, David Tennant, and Anthony Anderson are particular standouts. (But, actually, I think that may be all of them, so, yeah, the bulls are good.) Although David Tennant’s Angus is my personal favorite (and the way Ferdinand helps him is a nice use of symbolism and foreshadowing), the moment when Bobby Cannavale’s Valiente turns a corner is, perhaps, the strongest scene in the entire film. I’m personally partial to a moment that comes just a few minutes before, but Valiente’s late interactions with Ferdinand are without question superb.
My daughter seemed consistently charmed by the antics of hedgehogs Una (Gina Rodriguez, playing a very different character here than in The Star), Dos (Daveed Diggs), and Cuatro (Gabriel Iglesias), and I personally loved Flula Borg, Sally Phillips, and Boris Kodjoe as the trio of silly horses next door. To me, these three provided the best laughs of the movie. True, they were extremely silly, but I kept laughing at them in spite of myself.
Some of the visuals in the film were surprisingly thought provoking. When I compliment the visuals, I’m not saying I was blown away by the animation or artwork (though the movie is pretty enough). What I liked so much was Ferdinand’s surprising fondness for using image as symbol.
Another aspect of Ferdinand surprised me, too. I expected it to be a largely forgettable comedy, but the dramatic elements of the story consistently work much better than the humor. To be honest, in fact, in terms of comedy, Ferdinand is pretty weak, a bit worse than mediocre. But as a drama, it is quite strong, truly excelling at key moments. Because of the strength of these few dramatic scenes, the film is not forgettable at all (just a little frustrating).
Best Scene Visually:
Early on there’s a fairly charming “bull in a china shop” scene that’s partially spoiled by all the previews and posters and cardboard cutouts for the movie. As I watched, I felt confident that this was one of the strongest moments of Ferdinand. It’s also a strong visual metaphor, a reduction of all the story has to offer us up to this point.
Ferdinand is that rare bull who behaves with gentleness and care. He’s so sweet and gentle that he would never want to destroy beautiful things or cause people pain. That “cause people pain” part is what’s important part here because the china shop really represents the crux of Ferdinand’s dilemma. He would be happiest out frolicking in nature which he understands and considers beautiful. But the baffling and artificial trappings of the human world keep capturing and constraining him. Ferdinand doesn’t want to cause anyone unhappiness or pain, so he always proceeds slowly and carefully. He’s not your typical bull in a china shop.
(Of course, while watching and thinking all of this, I couldn’t help remembering that MythBusters experiment showing that bulls usually try to be reasonably careful in china shops, at least as pragmatic with their steps as they would be in any kind of maze.)
As I watched, I decided, This is an important and powerful moment in terms of this movie which is not going to show us anything actually important or powerful. This is a highlight of a film that wants to be graded pass/fail instead of trying for an A. This is the “good part.” It’s just that the movie isn’t actually all that good. It’s not bad. It just isn’t even reaching for greatness.
But then later, the movie suddenly stunned me by offering scenes that actually resonated and felt truly powerful. That made me question all that had come before.
When the movie finally hits its stride and becomes good, we see Ferdinand unexpectedly become aware of his true situation. He would never do anything to hurt anyone, but others are trying to hurt him. He would never destroy the humans’ china shop, but some of the humans want to murder him and make him into a wall decoration.
Could it be that his world view and the human world view are fundamentally incompatible? And, more importantly, is he really not like the other bulls, or have the other bulls been manipulated into acting unlike their true selves? We get painful visual confirmation that the strategy for success that most bulls have used does not work. But with his persistent pacifism and gentleness can Ferdinand survive?
It’s this later scene, the one in which Ferdinand stares in horror at a wall inside the house, that is truly the movie’s best visually and arguably best overall. What an image!
(There’s also a windmill transition that’s pretty great in its own quiet way.)
Best Scene:
Ferdinand begins his journey with the feeling that he is not like other bulls (which he does not mind). But after a shocking discovery, we see that perhaps no bulls are “like other bulls.” The bulls are being manipulated and deceived, horribly used by most humans in the story (which Ferdinand minds a great deal).
I think the best scene comes when Ferdinand gazes at that wall and whispers his one sentence epiphany.
But a very close second is the moment when he and Valiente unexpectedly team up to save another friend. This whole section of the movie is outstanding.
Best Action Sequence:
Building on the momentum established in the two scenes I’ve just mentioned, Ferdinand offers us this outstanding chase scene that is the closest this movie ever comes to finding its stride comedically. The chase initially looks like a rip-off of the end of Finding Dory, but it keeps picking up energy and finding its own voice as it gets better and better and better. It helps that the action here is paired with the absolutely perfect music. Unfortunately, after this chase is over, the film gradually begins losing energy again.
The Negatives:
For the first half of this film, I had few complaints. Ferdinand wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t pretending to be. Like I said earlier, to use a grading analogy, the movie seemed to be going for pass/fail, and it was at no time in danger of failing.
But then something terrible happened. The movie became excellent. This gripping, powerful stuff lasted only for a handful of successive scenes, but it was there enough to make me gasp and realize, Wait! This movie could have been great, after all!
That frustrated me.
When you have scenes that work as well as those, why settle for mediocrity? I say, keep what’s actually good, cut what’s merely serviceable, and build again from there.
I realize that approach is not always practical. Redoing movies costs money.
Also, in the spirit of fairness, I will disclose that the stretch when the movie became excellent coincided exactly with the time during which my husband had to take our two-year-old son out into the hall. I truly believe that this is a coincidence (and an unfortunate coincidence for my husband who missed the only actually good part of the movie), but it’s a coincidence that seems a bit suspicious even to me.
So I will admit that my own divided attention may be part of the problem I had with most of the film (though I really don’t think so).
Much of the comedy in this movie doesn’t quite work. Why bother with all that mediocre (sometimes even failed) comedy? Just get rid of it. Make Ferdinand a drama with a few sweet moments that make us smile provided by adorable animals. Children like dramas, too. Not every good children’s movie is a comedy. Cute and tragic sometimes works. Look at Bambi.
I love Kate McKinnon, but I think the movie would work better without her character of Lupe, the (not particularly calm) calming goat. While I was interested to learn that a “calming goat” is a thing, Lupe’s presence is kind of grating because it’s clear that she’s supposed to be providing comic relief, and nobody is laughing all that hard. Lupe just doesn’t feel like a great match, tonally, with the rest of the story. She reminds me a bit of Dory in Finding Nemo, except that she’s neither as funny nor as endearing. So it’s hard not to view her as a failed attempt at a Dory character. As you watch, you get the idea that her awkward goat with a heart of gold is supposed to generate the lion’s share of the laughs, but she barely gets the goat’s share. Now this is not McKinnon’s fault. The character just doesn’t fit, and there’s not much she can do about it. Making these observations pains me because in general, McKinnon is so talented. She’s hilarious on SNL, and she’s equally great in every screen role I’ve seen. Something is just off here, tonally, and the easiest way to fix it would be to remove the Lupe character and stop pathetically reaching for laughs she’s unable to get with the material she’s given.
On the plus side, it’s worth nothing that while most of Ferdinand‘s humor isn’t effective, it also isn’t crude. (They do say “sucks” a lot. Well, maybe just twice to be honest. There was a moment when I realized, “Wow! They just said ‘sucks’ twice within ten seconds. I didn’t know that was okay for kids today!” Seriously my own kids update me practically hourly on words they now consider bad or are not allowed to say in school. I’m pretty sure that “sucks” ought to be on that list since it was somewhat sketchy even when I was a kid. But I spent quite a bit of this movie encouraging my two-year-old not to behave like a bull in a china shop, so I didn’t listen vigilantly for further faux profanity.)
Overall:
I liked Ferdinand just fine until it actually got good. Then I felt insulted by its failure to embrace its promise and its choice to follow the easier road of mediocrity instead. Of course, take my impressions with a grain of salt. Maybe I was just grumpy because I was trying to keep my two-year-old from choking on popcorn and climbing into strangers’ laps further down the row. John Cena gives a pretty winning performance, some scenes late in the movie are actually amazing, and I will always love the idea of inhaling a caterpillar and sneezing out a butterfly.