By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Cast (Voice): John Cena, Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Bobby Cannavale, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, David Tennant, Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias Lily Day , Jerod Carmichael and Juanes.
Rating: Good.
Carlos Saldanha, director of “Rio”, “Rio 2” and “The Ice Age” brings “Ferdinand”, an animated feature film from Blue Sky Studios that like his character has a lot of heart but it has many flaws.
The movie centers in Ferdinand (John Cena) a bull with a big heart that one day in a local event is confused by a dangerous animal and is separated from his adopted family conformed by Nina (Lily Day), her father Juan (Juanes) and their dog Paco (Jerod Carmichael).
Ferdinand will be taken to a place called Casa del Toro where he will meet a goat named Lupe (Kate McKinnon) who will become his best friend and mentor.
Ferdinand is determined to go back with Nina and he tries to convince Lupe to get him out of Casa del Toro. Lupe accepts and will help Ferdinand to go back with his family and avoid entering to a bull arena, which is the last place Ferdinand wants to be.
I mentioned earlier that “Ferdinand” is a movie with flaws, one of those was in terms screenplay which was written by Robert L. Baird, Brad Copeland and Tim Federle. I think that the movie was too long and for a film of this genre the shorter you can keep it the better.
The characters in this film were very well developed and I like the fact that the goals in every single one of them were very clear from the beginning of the film to the endI;the major problem is that they needed to be more fleshed out.
At the same time I felt that the movie has a slow pace and that can eventually represent a problem, specially for kids who either already have seen the film or want to see it.
On a positive note in terms of production is a very well made film and does deliver the goods. Carlos Saldanha`s directing was very good and the actors who lend their voices for this film were great specially Kate McKinnon, who was very funny as the voice of Lupe the goat in this movie.
I liked the fact that the movie doesn´t take place in America and it´s in Europe. One of the things that was really well made was the fact that Saldanha showed us the cultural side of a country like Spain and the world of bulls and bull fighting.
Maybe the way how the bulls are getting picked before they go in a ring may or not necessarily be accurate but it does work.
I liked the fact that we are seeing a character who despite of it´s size wants to give love unconditionally but at the same time he struggles on belonging to a world that he won´t be easily be accepted.
The message of accepting others regardless of their flaws is very real in this film and touching. John Cena´s voice as Ferdinand was really good and the movie didn´t loose the humor as well.
In this type of film I insist that also comedy has to be a factor and it was very well played in here.
Again the only problem that I see is the length and this is one of the reasons why I don´t give a higher recommendation. Still I did enjoy it.
With that being said “Ferdinand” is a very well made animated feature film and I do recommend it for it´s message, production and cast of the film who did an amazing job on sharing their voices to the characters of this film.