Ferdinand (2017)
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Ferdinand Movie Review
Ferdinand is a 2017 family animated film directed by Carlos Saldanha. It is a very disappointing flick from Blue Sky Studios.
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“That’s the way it is.
Either you’re a fighter, or you’re meat.
So long, meat“
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I really did not care for this film. It is infinitely inferior to the original 1938 Disney short which is a masterpiece by all means whereas this one is basically a children’s flick which is even worse than ‘The Boss Baby’. How those two got nominated for an Oscar I will never know.
So the story is your regular story from the original, but overly extended to reach the hour and a half mark. Needless to say, the film is better off as a short, especially if you are going to add such obviously cloying and made for children sidekicks and action sequences. The film definitely must be good for small children, but for everyone else it is very forgettable, clichéd and pretty boring.
I liked Ferdinand quite a bit and I wanted more of him. He is the protagonist for sure, but the sidekicks take too much of the screen time here. Lupe the goat is actually not as annoying as most would say, but still she is a typical sidekick character and there is nothing memorable or new when it comes to her.
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The rest of the characters are all pretty forgettable with the bull and human characters being quite weak. The hedgehogs are definitely a lot of fun though. In terms of voice acting, everyone did a fine job with Kate McKinnon being solid and John Cena also being likable in the role, but I could still hear that most characters were voiced by famous actors and I do not like that. The film is very obvious in that regard.
Ferdinand is very well animated and obviously that is its biggest strength. I just loved some of the panning shots as well as the flowers as they were gorgeous to behold. The character design is pretty standard and the overall animation is nothing too impressive and never artistic, but at least it is very nice and pleasant to look at.
I also really liked its score with the song Home being a lot of fun. It certainly isn’t one of the best movie songs of 2017, not by a mile. But it is, however, a very fun, catchy number that serves its purpose in the movie itself.
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Overall, technically speaking, Ferdinand is not good. The pacing is ridiculously frenetic and it just has way too much action in it. It is so obviously made for little kids that everyone over the age of 10 is bound to be bored by it, at least I was. Some of the action was entertaining and some scenes were endearing, but most of it was a giant plotless kiddie affair with forgettable plot points and character interactions. It’s a highly disappointing film for sure.
Ferdinand is such a disappointing movie which is very well animated and it has some sweet and fun scenes, but for the most part it is filled with way too much action scenes and too many sidekick characters. It is frenetic, boring and way too kid friendly. Needless to say, its Oscar nomination is ludicrous and the original 1938 Disney short remains the quintessential adaptation of this story.
