‘Billy Elliot’ with a giant bull
It’s a reel too long, but Blue Sky’s stab at ‘Ferdinand’ a classic which hits the bullseye
(7) FERDINAND. Directed by: Carlos Saldanha. Starring the voices of: John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Gina Rodriguez (voices). Reviewed by: Tim Robey.
FERDINAND is a load of old bull, in a good way. The latest mid-level animation from Blue Sky Studios – purveyors of the Ice Age franchise and other attempts at seizing Pixar’s crown – is based on a well-loved children’s book, The Story of Ferdinand, written by the American team of Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson in 1936.
Walt Disney made it into a short in 1938, Ferdinand the Bull, which won an Oscar. So here Blue Sky are again with the emulation game although after 80-odd years, having another stab at it could probably be considered reasonable enough.
The story is once again about a young Spanish fighting bull, raised with the destiny of fighting in the ring and resisting it at every turn. He escapes in adolescence and is taken in by a poor peasant family but fate contrives to bring him back to his previous captors, who renew their attempts to train Ferdinand – enormous in size by this stage – and have him square off with a legendary matador.
Voicing the title role is John Cena, which makes a lot of sense if you know who Cena is: the former WWE wrestler who made his film debut in 2006’s The Marine, and he has popped up as a cameo player in the likes of Trainwreck and Daddy’s Home, usually as a terrifyingly steroidal walking punchline.
He’s a cartoon character even in the flesh; now he’s a giant bull. And not only this, but his transition from pro wrestling into the acting game is neatly analogous to Ferdinand’s hopes and dreams, which are to smell flowers, throw fierce shapes to disco music, and be an all-round sensitive soul. It’s Billy Elliot with a bull, roughly. And what’s not to like?
Just about the only thing not to like in Ferdinand is the running time: after an hour, one family at the public matinee I saw got twitchy and called it a day. It’s a good reel too long for what it is and a lot of the minor characters feel like they’re clogging up the movie more than helping it out.
Kate McKinnon’s role as a calming goat called Lupe lacks the goofy charm that Ellen DeGeneres brought to her Finding Nemo sidekick: no one will be requesting a Ferdinand follow-up that was re-focused on her.
We’ll make an exception, though, for a trio of snooty, Teutonically accented horses, who occupy the manicured field next to the bull ranch and sound like unbelievably haughty Düsseldorf scenesters. Their every appearance lifts the film’s comedy quotient no end and the mid-way dance-off between them and the bulls is a riot.
While never as resplendent as the first Rio (2011) – a Blue Sky high-water mark – the movie dishes out plenty of appealing vistas, especially when we’re off that ranch at long last, and tumbling around the streets of Madrid towards the end. Meanwhile, John Powell’s music, recalling James Horner’s old Zorro scores with its spirited paso dobles, adds a welcome dash of Tabasco.
The only problem is that the true peak arrives early when Ferdinand is trying to inch his way around a gorgeous pueblo in the midst of its annual flower festival.
Striking terror into all who see him, he retreats inside a doorway, only to find himself in any anxious bull‘s equivalent of Room 101. Where else? A china shop.
The tip-toeing gymnastics that follow are like a top-notch short you could watch on repeat, in surroundings that might otherwise threaten to overstay their welcome, but never quite do. – The Telegraph