«Ferdinand», a beautiful cartoon set in Spain

Cinema Wednesdays - Jonas Follonier

In 1938, Walt Disney released a short film featuring a fearsomely muscular bull with a sentimental heart, more interested in the scent of flowers than in horn-fighting. Now, in 2017, a feature-length adaptation of this tale is hitting the screens, Ferdinand, which brings a new light to the praise of difference and the denunciation of bullfighting. The film is directed by Carlos Saldanha, who made the first three Ice Age.

Growing up in a casa del toros Alongside his fighting friends, Ferdinand enjoys sniffing the pretty red flower in the yard. The day his father is taken to the arena, the young bull runs off into the wild. This is followed by a magnificent sequence in which Ferdinand is adopted by a horticulturist's young daughter, who also takes a liking to the animal. This is the film's most touching and aesthetically pleasing moment.

But the young bull soon becomes a robust bull. And when he finds himself in town to attend the flower festival, the festivities quickly turn to disaster. Stung by a bee, the oversized animal dashes through the crowd, turning stalls and shops upside down. The police intervene, and Ferdinand, who has become accustomed to his new life with the farmer and his daughter, is taken back to his childhood prison.

The story unfolds over the course of an hour, culminating in a colorful finale in the Madrid arena. Ferdinand certainly achieves its entertainment objective. A well-balanced, well-researched sense of humor emerges, as does a most exquisite instrumental score. Above all, the beautiful computer-generated images across the Spanish countryside, from windmills to arid fields in the moonlight, show the full potential of modern animation.

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation