After Ferdinand's father is chosen by the matador as the most fitted Bull for a bullfight, he doesn't return and a rival bull makes it clear to Ferdinand that his father was a weakling and that Bulls which were weaklings never made it back home alive. This instills fear in little Ferdinand, who hated fighting, making him run away from the ranch. He's chased by the ranch keepers but manages to get on a moving train, safely escaping the hands of the evil looking men.
Luckily , he stumbles on a flower farm owned by a family consisting of a girl called Nina, her father, Juan, and their dog. They adopt him and Nina expresses her love for Ferdinand so much that she does almost everything with him.
Ferdinand loves his new life and wants to go places with Nina and her father including the annual flower festival. What he doesn't notice is that he's grown so huge that while he may be gentle at heart, his looks were terrifying.
Juan tries to keep Ferdinand out of other humans' sight by leaving him at home as they go for the flower festival to protect him because he knew that not everyone would understand him the way he and his daughter did. But, Ferdinand is determined to have an experience at the flower festival and follows them.
Unfortunately , Ferdinand gets stung by a bee while at the festival and things go south. The fuss at the town square causes animal control to show up and Ferdinand is taken away, back to the ranch he once ran away from. He's huge and looks fit to be challenged in a ring but will he let himself be riled up by a human and fight back or will just stand back and do nothing to prove he's a good Bull?
My review and rating
When I saw that John Cena was the voice of Ferdinand in this movie, I was jazzed and got into watching it immediately, ignoring my busy schedules. The film is one that is heartfelt but a little disappointing. It's disappointing because the John Cena I know doesn't shy away from fights and the fact that Ferdinand shied away from fights was out of character. I badly wanted him to get back at the humans putting him up for fights until they had no muscles left in them to raise a finger to pick a Bull for a fight just for entertainment.
Ferdinand is a pacifist in this film. He's also a flower lover. Different from the rest of the bulls in the film. I once saw a TikTok where a man was fishing for food and someone in the comments said and I quote; “animals once lived a very peaceful life until humans showed up on the surface of the earth.” I think this comment fits this movie better because in my opinion, the bulls were being assaulted and forced to fight back. I mean why get the animal so furious until they get to act out of proportion and then blame it on them screaming it's in their nature to be ferocious? Bulls may look scary but I'm pretty sure they didn't beg to be among humans. They were on their own when humans went looking for trouble.
Using a Bull for entertainment doesn't sit well with me and the fact that Ferdinand wanted to change that narrative felt like a big warm hug. I want to actually believe that the primary reason for the production of this film was to create awareness that Bulls are not in inexistence to entertain humans in any way. Bull sportif that's a thing in my opinion sucks.
Apart from Ferdinand, the next character I love is Nina. She stood up for Ferdinand. She made sure she stood her ground to make the world see that he was different. Ferdinand was more interested in living a normal life, in being around nature, in loving flowers rather than being in a ring to fight some annoying humans in exchange for his life.
I'd rate this movie a solid ⅘. It's worth watching with the family.