Film Review: "Ferdinand" (2017).

"The beloved classic comes to life in a big way." Here comes Ferdinand. This computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film directed by Carlos Saldanha, adapted by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle and Brad Copeland, based on Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's children's book The Story of Ferdinand, and produced by Blue Sky Studios. Ferdinand is a giant bull with a big heart. After being mistaken for a dangerous beast and torn from his home, he rallies a misfit team of friends for the ultimate adventure to return to his family.

Munro Leaf's children's book was first adapted into a Disney animated short, Ferdinand the Bull, released in 1938, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. In 2011, it was reported that 20th Century Fox Animation had acquired the rights to the book with the plan to adapt it into a computer-animated feature film with Saldanha attached to direct, with Baird, Federle and Copeland penning the script. In May 2013, Fox titled the film simply Ferdinand, which would be produced by Blue Sky Studios. Originally intended to be released in July 2017, then it was pushed back to December 22nd the same year, then it was pushed forward to December 15th, releasing the same day as Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi.

The film features the voice talents of John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Anthony Anderson, David Tennant, Lily Day, Juanes, Jerrod Carmichael, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Raúl Esparza, Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias, Flula Borg, Boris Kodjoe, and Sally Phillips. Despite the solid efforts of the cast, their performances, at time, bordered into familiar and cliched territory. However, with its array of goofy characters and carefully crafted relationships, the film certainly manages to tell a solid tale.

Though its narrative themes are all too familiar, Ferdinand is beautifully animated and crafted with just enough flair to make for solid family entertainment. The story lacks the specialness of a Pixar movie - it retreads the same eco-battle archetypes as Home on the Range (2004) - but it's a perfectly appealing explosion of color for a lazy summer day. Where the animated film comes up short is on the inspiration front—despite the intriguing terrain, its stock inhabitants lack the sort of unique personality traits that would prevent them from feeling overly familiar. It's difficult to keep its story and characters, or even its visual design, in your mind's eye, in part because the three credited screenwriters overload the narrative with incident and threatening complication. It’s not that the plot of the film is complex; it’s just untidy. There’s a lot going on that goes nowhere. However, the story's simple enough to appeal to young kids (the 8-year-old with me pronounced the movie "awesome"), but adults will enjoy the beautiful animation, whether 3D or 2D. As beautiful as it is, the film is fatally lacking in visceral momentum and dramatic edge. It won't take up much space in the animation history books but will make a very nice footnote.

Simon says Ferdinand receives:

Also, see my review for Ice Age: Collision Course.