By Cynthia Ayala

“After Ferdinand, a bull with a big heart, is mistaken for a dangerous beast, he is captured and torn from his home. Determined to return to his family, he rallies a misfit team on the ultimate adventure.” —IMDB

What a great family film with color and heart. Ferdinand is a tale of a gentle bull who only wants to smell the flowers. It’s such a cute film that has an amazing story to tell behind it, and that’s part of what makes it so great.

First and foremost, lets talk about the animation. The colors and animation make the film so vibrant and make the film shine. There is also the use of color and filters to tell the film apart from it’s sad moments to it’s good moments. The color and vibrancy in the film represent such lightness to the film, creating such a warm atmosphere to the film. The vibrancy of the film creates such a great vibe for family and children, even when the film gets dark. Bullfighting is no easy thing, it’s a brutal sport of a man against a bull, with one always being on the wrong side of death. And the movie captures that sadness, that brutality without showing it, by using drab colors and dark silhouettes to create a somber atmosphere. The balance between the film make the film even more heartfelt and lovely because it highlights an appreciation of life, for all species.

Animation aside, which was great, the story itself holds an important message about what strength means. Strength doesn’t mean using whatever brute strength you have, it doesn’t mean that at all, and I love that message in the movie. Here you have Ferdinand, he’s the biggest bull, he could beat anyone, but he doesn’t want to. All he wants is to smell the flowers and take in the beauty of the world around him. Having strength doesn’t mean you have to use it, and Ferdinand is probably the gentlest bull there is who refuses to fight. He also teaches the other bulls that having emotions, have fun, they aren’t bad things, they give meaning to life, emotions give meaning to life, and being all macho, well that didn’t make these bulls happy. Ferdinand taught them that there was more to life then fighting, and that message of pacifism is such a good lesson to pass onto children.

Ferdinand was such a sweet and heartfelt movie that was brilliantly made with amazing voice acting behind it. (★★★★ | A)

— Film Credits —

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Screenplay by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle & Brad Copeland

Story by Ron Burch, David Kidd & Don Rhymer

Based on The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf & Robert Lawson

Starring: John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, Miguel Ángel Silvestre & David Tennant

Rating | Length | Genre: PG | 1h 48min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Distributed by 20th Century Fox