Ferdinand (film)

Ferdinand is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Blue Sky Studios, Davis Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Animation. The film was based on Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's children's book The Story of Ferdinand, written by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle and Brad Copeland and directed by Carlos Saldanha. The film features the voice of John Cena as the titular role, along with Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and David Tennant. The story, written by Ron Burch, David Kidd and Don Rhymer, follows a gentle pacifist bull named Ferdinand who refuses to participate in bullfighting but is forced back into the arena where his beliefs are challenged by being faced off against the world's greatest bullfighter.

Ferdinand premiered on December 8, 2017 at the Dubai International Film Festival and was theatrically released in the United States on December 15, 2017, in 3D and 2D by 20th Century Fox. It has grossed $295 million worldwide against a production budget of $111 million. Ferdinand received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards but lost to Coco. It received nominations for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song ("Home") at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.

Plot
In Spain, a ranch owned by Moreno (Raúl Esparza) that trains bulls for bullfighting called Casa del Toro harbours a bull calf named Ferdinand (Colin H. Murphy). He is ridiculed by his fellow calves Bones (Nile Diaz), Guapo (Jet Jurgensmeyer), and Valiente (Jack Gore) for being non-confrontational and his tendency to smell and protect flowers. A saddened Ferdinand runs away from Casa del Toro after his father Raf (Jeremy Sisto) does not return from the bull fight he was picked for and a flower he was fond of was flattened by Valiente after his own father was defeated by Raf. He eventually awakens at a florist's farm, and is adopted by the owner Juan (Juanes), his dog Paco (Jerrod Carmichael), and his daughter Nina (Julia Saldanha) with whom he shares a bond. When Ferdinand (John Cena) eventually grows up into an enormous bull, he still retains his non-violent, flower-loving nature. Due to his size, he is left alone when Juan, Nina (Lily Day), and Paco go to Ronda for an annual flower festival. Ferdinand decides to go anyway, resulting in him getting stung by a bee and unintentionally causing chaos around town and is taken away back to Casa del Toro, much to his and the family’s sadness.

Once back there, he finds that Bones (Anthony Anderson), Guapo (Peyton Manning), and Valiente (Bobby Cannavale) have also grown up and have been joined by a Scottish bull named Angus (David Tennant) and a silent but intimidating bull named Maquina (Tim Nordquist). Ferdinand is still disrespected by the bulls, but manages to befriend a crazy goat named Lupe (Kate McKinnon) who wants to be his coach in bullfighting despite his lack of interest and three hedgehogs named Una (Gina Rodriguez), Dos (Daveed Diggs), and Cuatro (Gabriel Iglesias) who frequently invade Casa del Toro to steal food. They used to have another brother named Tres, but they claim he is dead.

One day, a legendary but egotistical bullfighter named El Primero (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) arrives at Casa del Toro to choose the biggest, strongest, and most aggressive bull to fight against before he retires. When the bulls fail to impress him on their first try, Guapo is taken to a nearby slaughterhouse and the other bulls tell Ferdinand that it will eventually be their fate if they are not chosen for a bullfight. Although Ferdinand manages to earn the respect of the other bulls, except Valiente, after a dance-off with three Pure Spanish Horses (Sally Phillips, Flula Borg and Boris Kodjoe), they still hold on to the belief that fighting is the only way for them to live. Ferdinand manages to convince Lupe to come back with him to Nina's farm and the hedgehogs help them escape, but when Ferdinand is close to freedom, he sees his father's picture on a wall with his horns mounted, along with dozens of other horns, making him realize that every bull who is chosen to fight gets slain by the matador.

Ferdinand explains to the other bulls that they will all eventually be killed even if they are chosen to fight. Valiente is the only one unconvinced and charges Ferdinand outside where Ferdinand inadvertently beats him in a fight and knocks off his right horn, much to the other animals' shock. Primero witnesses the scuffle, and chooses Ferdinand to fight him after seeing him defeat Valiente. When Valiente is taken to the slaughterhouse, Ferdinand rallies up the remaining bulls to escape but first goes to the slaughterhouse to break out Valiente. He at first refuses as he believes that the slaughterhouse is his fate now, but they discover that Guapo is still alive, and Ferdinand questions Valiente's courage after Valiente refuses to help him rescue Guapo. When Ferdinand tries to save Guapo, he accidentally activates a series of deadly contraptions, but with the help of a now-friendlier Valiente, they escape the slaughterhouse. The bulls, Lupe, the hedgehogs and a red bunny rabbit steal the training area's company truck to escape, with Moreno and his employees giving chase.

The animals try desperately to lose the humans and wind up at Atocha train station in Madrid that Ferdinand sees as his ticket back to Nina. When the bulls push a small railroad cart to catch the train back to Nina's home, Ferdinand sacrifices himself so the other bulls can escape (except for Lupe, who stays behind in shock after Ferdinand's act) and is captured by Moreno and his employees. When Nina learns of Ferdinand's upcoming fight with El Primero, she and Juan set out to Madrid to find and rescue Ferdinand.

At Las Ventas bullfight arena, Lupe tries to convince Ferdinand that he must fight in order to survive, but Ferdinand is silently unsure. When Ferdinand is released into the bullfight ring, he refuses to fight at first but is urged into fighting by El Primero. While being forced to run into Primero’s cape, Ferdinand is able to grab the cape from Primero with his horn and is temporarily blinded by it. Primero attempts to grab his cape back from Ferdinand, but is accidentally tossed out of the ring by Ferdinand. Primero re-enters the ring angrily and attacks Ferdinand using banderillas, striking him in the shoulder. Ferdinand almost retaliates against him, but sees a carnation underneath his hoof and realizes he is becoming the fighter he was determined not to be. As Primero draws his sword in order to finish Ferdinand, the crowd begins to cheer for Ferdinand, convincing Primero to spare him. Ferdinand is reunited with Nina, who embraces him as the crowd throws carnations to the ring to praise the bull. The other bulls arrive, thinking they are too late to save Ferdinand, but instead witness Ferdinand making history as the first bull to ever make it out of a bullfight alive by being himself.

In the end, Ferdinand returns home with Nina, Juan, and Paco. They are joined by the other bulls, the hedgehogs, the bunny, and Lupe, who all move into the farm. The film ends with Ferdinand, his bull friends, and Lupe watching the sunset over Ronda from a field of flowers.

In a brief mid-credits scene, the hedgehogs are confronted by Tres who is revealed to have been alive the whole time.

Cast

 * John Cena as Ferdinand, a bull who doesn't want be a fighting bull
 * Colin H. Murphy voices a calf Ferdinand.
 * Kate McKinnon as Lupe, an old goat and Ferdinand's mentor
 * Bobby Cannavale as Valiente, a bull.
 * Jack Gore voices a calf Valiente.
 * Cannavale also voices Valiente's father.
 * Anthony Anderson as Bones, a bull
 * Nile Diaz voices a calf Bones
 * Peyton Manning as Guapo, a bull
 * Jet Jurgensmeyer voices a calf Guapo
 * David Tennant as Angus, a Scottish Highland bull from Scotland who had hair over his eyes until Ferdinand came up with a way to fix it by licking his hair.
 * Tim Nordquist as Maquina, a cloned Belted Galloway bull made in a laboratory who doesn't talk and mostly makes sounds.
 * Gina Rodriguez as Una, a hedgehog who is Dos and Cuatro's sister
 * Daveed Diggs as Dos, a hedgehog, Una and Cuatro's brother
 * Gabriel Iglesias as Cuatro, a hedgehog, Una and Dos' brother
 * Miguel Ángel Silvestre as El Primero, a famous bull fighter who is in search of the fiercest bull to fight in his final bull fight.
 * Flula Borg as Hans, a Lipizzan at Casa del Toro.
 * Boris Kodjoe as Klaus, a Lipizzan at Casa del Toro.
 * Sally Phillips as Greta, a Lipizzan at Casa del Toro.
 * Lily Day as Nina, the original owner of Ferdinand and Paco. In the end, she becomes the new owner of Lupe.
 * Julia Scarpa Saldanha voices a young Nina.
 * Juanes as Juan, the father of Nina and the owner of Ferdinand and Paco.
 * Jerrod Carmichael as Paco, a dog owned by Nina and Juan
 * Cindy Slattery as Bunny, a red rabbit and additional voices.
 * Jeremy Sisto as Raf, Ferdinand's father who died in the bullfights.
 * Karla Martínez as Isabella, a village mother.
 * Raúl Esparza as Moreno, the owner of Casa del Toro
 * Belita Moreno as the shopkeeper of a china shop.
 * Carlos Saldanha as Screaming Matador and additional voices

Production
In 2011, it was reported that 20th Century Fox Animation had acquired the rights to the children's book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf to adapt it into a computer-animated feature film with Carlos Saldanha attached to direct it. In May 2013, Fox titled the film simply Ferdinand, which would be produced by Blue Sky Studios. John Powell, a frequent collaborator with Saldanha, would be composing the film's score. In November 2016, it was reported that Gabriel Iglesias would voice a character named Cuatro, a hedgehog, Una and Dos' brother.

Soundtrack
Original Motion Picture Score is composed by John Powell, additional music by Batu Sener, Anthony Willis and Paul Mounsey. The album was released on December 15, 2017.

Track listing
On September 19, 2017, it was announced that singer Nick Jonas wrote and recorded a song called "Home" for the movie. It was featured in the third trailer released in the next day and will also appear in the movie and end credits. It was released as the first promotional single of the soundtrack on October 20, 2017. A Second song by Nick Jonas named "Watch Me" was released alongside the film's EP on December 1.

Track listing
The soundtrack features three original tracks: "Home" and "Watch Me" by Nick Jonas, and "Lay Your Head On Me" by Juanes.

Release
In May 2013, Fox scheduled the film for April 7, 2017 release. In February 2016, the release date was pushed back from its original release date of April 7, 2017 to July 21, 2017. In August 2016, the release date was again pushed back, this time from July 21, 2017 to December 22, 2017, taking over the release date of DreamWorks Animation's The Croods 2, before that film was temporarily cancelled. In February 2017, the film was moved up by one week from December 22, 2017 to December 15, 2017. The first trailer premiered on March 28, 2017, followed by the second trailer on June 14, 2017.

Home media
Ferdinand was released on Digital HD on February 27, 2018, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 13, 2018.

Box office
Ferdinand has grossed $84.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $210.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $295.3 million, against a production budget of $111 million.

In the United States and Canada, Ferdinand was released alongside Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,621 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $350,000 from Thursday night previews at 2,385 theaters, which began at 5 P.M. and $3.6 million on its first day. It went on to open to $13.3 million, finishing second behind The Last Jedi.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 71% based on 105 reviews and an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ferdinand's colorful update on a classic tale doesn't go anywhere unexpected, but its timeless themes – and John Cena's engaging voice work in the title role – make for family-friendly fun." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audience polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Spanish bullfighting critic of El País, Antonio Lorca, in a critique of the film said that the film's message is "profoundly unnatural", and that the "renunciation" of the lead character to its "animal nature" is a lie that manipulates children, who will become "tomorrow's anti-bullfighters". El Diario.es commented on this article by Lorca, saying that it had been widely commented on social networks and that the anti-bullfighting narrative of the film "raised hackles" for its message against animal abuse, which can also be interpreted as "fight against school bullying" and "implicit defense of sexual and gender diversity".