Ferdinand

Author Munro Leaf and illustrator Robert Lawson’s 1936 children’s book about a bull that prefers smelling flowers to fighting matadors was turned into a seven-minute Oscar-winning short by Walt Disney in 1938, the perfect length for what was a pithy vignette. In refashioning the tale into a full-length animated movie, director Carlos Saldanha adds numerous new characters, plenty of chases, and many slapstick sequences. The result, while not unpleasant, feels episodic and protracted, obscuring the book’s simple message with a mass of unrelated subplots. The first addition is a prologue in which young Ferdinand, whose devotion to beauty rather than butting heads earns him the scorn of other calves in training, watches as his father is taken to do battle in Madrid and never returns. Ferdinand escapes and finds refuge at a farm with sweet Nina. Here he grows into a big lug (voiced by John Cena), who loves to sniff the roses in the fields. Disaster arrives when he sneaks into the village for the annual floral festival, causing much commotion, including—inevitably—a sequence in a china shop. Captured and sent back to the ranch for training, Ferdinand is selected for a match by an arrogant matador. But he escapes with several friends—a goat and some zany hedgehogs—before being pursued and forced into the bullring. This expansion of Leaf’s story features colorful animation, but it is merely amiable rather than inspired, although it was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. Recommended, overall. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Learn to Dance” (8 min.), “Ferdinand's Do-It-Yourself Flower Garden” (7 min.), “Creating the Land” (6 min.), “Anatomy of a Scene: The Bull Run” (4 min.), “Creating a Remarka-Bull Song” (4 min.), “Ferdinand’s Team Supreme” (4 min.), “Ferdinand’s Guide to Healthy Living with John Cena” (3 min.), “Confessions of a Bull-Loving Horse” (3 min.), “A Goat’s Guide to Life” (3 min.), and “Spain Through Ferdinand’s Eyes” (2 min.), as well as the music video for “Home” by Nick Jonas (3 min.), and art galleries. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for this Oscar nominee.] (F. Swietek)