Ferdinand (PG)
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Caution: spoilers!

This came out in 2017, but I didn't see it until 2023. It is an adaptation of both a 1936 children's book that I haven't read, and the 1938 Disney short film Ferdinand the Bull. Anyway, I wasn't sure if I'd ever bother watching this movie, but I'm glad I did, because it was better than I expected. Still not one of my favorite Blue Sky Studios films, but not one of my least favorites, either. I will say that for much of the film it seemed kind of mediocre, to me, but it has some parts that I really like. It seems to have an anti-bullfighting message, which I agree with, and incidentally an anti-meat message, which I also basically agree with. And it has some decent characters and interactions and whatnot.

It's set in Spain, and begins when a bull named Ferdinand is a calf. Unlike the other bull calves, he's not interested in fighting, and likes smelling flowers. One day, his father gets chosen to fight a matador, and is taken away from their home at Casa del Toro. When he doesn't return, Ferdinand runs away, and ends up being adopted by a flower farmer named Juan and his daughter, Nina. (Humans, I feel it important to note, can't understand animals' speech in this movie, so I have no idea how they knew his name was Ferdinand.) He grows up (now voiced by John Cena) to be a rather large bull, but still just likes smelling flowers and spending time with Nina and Juan and their dog, Paco (Jerrod Carmichael).

One day, Juan and Nina go to a flower festival, but this year Juan says Ferdinand can't go with them, because he's too big. Ferdinand is disappointed, and eventually decides to go to the festival anyway, by himself. Then unfortunate circumstances cause him to unintentionally wreak some havoc, and everyone is scared of him, despite Nina trying to convince them he's harmless. In one scene I particularly like just for the concept, he ends up in a china shop, trying his best not to break anything (and doing a remarkable job of it, for awhile). He's finally caught and taken back to Casa del Toro, where he reunites with a few bulls he knew when they were all calves together, including Valiente (Bobby Cannavale), Guapo (Peyton Manning), and Bones (Anthony Anderson). He also meets a goat named Lupe (Kate McKinnon), a Scottish Highland bull named Angus (David Tennant), and a lab-grown bull named Maquina (who doesn't speak). There are also a trio of horses who are German for some reason, and like to mock the bulls. (One scene I enjoyed was a dance battle between the bulls and the horses.) And Ferdinand befriends a trio of hedgehogs named Una, Dos, and Cuatro. Valiente is a very arrogant bull who wants nothing more than to be chosen to fight a matador, and disdains Ferdinand's peaceful ways. Lupe wants to train Ferdinand to be a great fighter, but of course he's disinterested, though he becomes friends with her, anyway. And the other bulls also end up becoming friends with Ferdinand, even though they also want to be fighters.

One day a famous matador named El Primero comes to Casa del Toro to choose the bull he will fight next. While most of the bulls try to impress him, Ferdinand doesn't try at all. But once again, circumstances make him appear to be the strongest bull, so he gets chosen. Before he can be taken away, he decides to run away, but only if he can take all the bulls with him, because he discovers that bulls never win their fights against matadors, always being killed. He also wants to break a couple of bulls out of a slaughterhouse. He succeeds in the latter effort, but later sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape on a train (after a rather ridiculous but fun car chase). So, Ferdinand gets taken to the arena to fight El Primero, but he tries his best to avoid fighting. I don't want to say too much about how that goes, except that there's an amusing bit where it seemed like Ferdinand and El Primero swapped roles, when El Primero's cape got stuck on Ferdinand's horns. And in the end, Ferdinand sniffs a flower that someone in the audience had thrown to El Primero earlier. That, along with his peaceful nature, leads the crowd to side with Ferdinand. So, there's a happy ending, with all the bulls and Lupe and the hedgehogs going to live with Nina and Juan. Plus there's a brief mid-credits scene with the hedgehogs that was nice.