General Review: Ferdinand

Hello, Spongey here.

We’re almost at the finish line of 2017. We start that end with the final animated film of 2017. This has an interesting year for animation (for better or for worse) and Blue Sky will end us off.

After Ice Age 5, I was hoping for a winner. I didn’t have any thoughts either way other than “please be good”. It’s an adaptation of a children’s book I had oddly never heard of, which Disney covered in a 1938 short.

So I’ll have no idea how it compares to it’s source. I’m just hoping it’ll be good on it’s own. The trailers have been on and off for some, with some looking good and some being a bit annoying. I also got it a lot, it’s the Sing of 2017 in that way.

But with that said, let’s see who brought out this one. Of the 3 writers we have people that wrote things like Monsters University, Big Hero 6, Wild Hogs and actual novels. So we’re mostly in decent hands on that front.

The director is Carlos Saldanha who has been working for Blue Sky since pretty much the start. He did the Rio films which were clearly passion projects and also the good Ice Age Sequels.

He clearly knows what the was doing so his involvement plus the nature of the film made me interested in it. At the moment there aren’t too many major reviews but the ones we do have are positive enough. But that could change by the time I watch the movie, cuz I write these intros the day before and don’t edit them after the fact.

With that said, will this be one of Blue Sky’s greats or will be one of their just okay ones?

This, is Ferdinand

Ferdinand the peaceful Bull is ripped away from my owner and is forced into training to be a fighting bull, so some new friends must help him escape.

So far, Blue Sky has been a slightly frustrating studio. They’ve prove they can do good, even great things with their better movies and even in their lesser films. But a fair amount of time, they waste the talent they clearly have on either weak stories or forced pandering that was clearly forced in by out of touch executives.

I bring this up because this film, more than any of their works, sum that all up. But the thing is…i kind of liked this movie. But watching it, I can see a GREAT or at least really good movie in here, but it’s trapped in a merely decent one that’s only Good enough.

And I know exactly what the problems are but let’s go over the good things first. The animation is always is strong. Not their best work but the designs are decent, and the scenery looks really nice when we see it.

The character animation is also very strong especially in some of the slapstick-y bits. Although at some points they can move a bit too fast, especially the mouths. That’s an odd thing to mention but it bothered me at some bits.

The score is also pretty good, as is the soundtrack. Yes, even the Nick Jonas song. It is a good song. Shut up.

Ferdinand himself is a likable lead. Not super complex but very likable. He’s not a wimp simply because he’s anti violence, they show that he’s not scared of it at all. He just doesn’t like it for some pretty understandable reasons.

He’s voiced by, of all people, John Cena who does a good job. No, really. I actually forgot it was him because he actually fit the character. He won’t win any awards for this but he was good. Wow. He’s actually the best actor in here, oddly enough.

There’s also some decent comedy, like one part that happens after the china shop scene that actually did make me laugh out loud. And oh boy, when this movie wants to make you feel something,you will.

There are actually some really heartwarming and effective moments in this movie. When this movie calms down and lets a moment happen, it really works. It even goes to some interesting places to just how bad bull fighting is.

I was surprised, this has some really good moments that both make you like the lead and deliver the moral without being too preachy. From what I’m saying, you might be wondering what the problem is.

The problem is TOOOONE. Holy crap, did some of the writers/executives not have faith in kids. They looked at this nice little movie about a bull and thought hey, we need Dabbing German Horses!

That’s a thing in this movie, and it it’s in one of the biggest Big Lipped Alligator Moments ever. They try to justify it but after it happens, it’s never mentioned again.

A lot of the comedy is very forced, mostly with the comic reliefs. I get it, you need other people for Ferd to hang out with, that’s fine but. But Lupa is really annoying, always jabbering on about nothing.

She has a point at least (unlike the Dabbing German Horses) but she still needed to be toned down, because she got on my serves. As did the Hedgehogs, although they weren’t in this too much at least.

Heck, those 3 vanish in the climax while Lupa sticks around. I’m fine with there being Comedy, even dramatic family films need comedy, but it should have been toned down because it got distracting.

It also felt a bit long. It’s about 95 or so minutes which isn’t too bad but some parts could have been shaved…like the Dabbing German Horses. That’s not a huge issie but there is a reason people find themselves perfering the 8 minute version by Disney.

Who..i guess also owns this movie now. I’m topical.

The odd thing is, usually I’d be hung up on how cliché the film is given it’s premise but for the most part, that’s not an issue. The writers do a good job of making it a bit deeper than other stories like this and treat like like a real story.

As I said, some scenes are effective, even a bit emotional. Not to the extent of the best Pixar efforts, but let me put it his way: Sometimes the movie is like The Peanuts Movie. Other times it’s like the Ice Age Sequels.

Yeah, I think that sums it up. I will say that it ends on a good note. Almost everything from the actual fight onward are good, consistently so. Why wouldn’t the whole movie be like this?

As it,is, it’s a mixed bag. I will go far as to say I kind of liked it, but only because of how good the good elements are. You can tell the makers of this wanted to create this really nice story and it results in some really strong moments.

But you can also tell some people working on it didn’t have much faith in kids and put in the forced comedy that really did take me out in, especially in the mid section. It wasn’t enough to flat out ruin the movie for me but it did bother me.

This could have been at least a really good movie but those big flaws do distract me quite a bit. However. Those good moments are done well and I’ve seen a lot worse in terms of these problems.

At the moment, the reviews are Decent but slightly mixed and I get why. Some won’t be bothered by the comedy and will get into the story, while others will be annoyed. My recommendation is, see if it it sounds good.

If a certain other film is sold out and you got kids, go ahead. These will enjoy the antics and some adults can even appreciate the effort that clearly went into this. But if you don’t like distracting comedy and aren’t in a position where you’ll be forced to see, I’d wait til you can rent it.

….Especially if you like in the UK because the BBFC for some reason apparently butchered this film and removed some harsher bits. I haven’t seen this version but I hear it is very noticeable. So if you’re British, I’d wait so you can see the real version.

It’s odd, because I will go as far as to call the film barely good, but those issues really do both me. This has some really good moments and could have been so good, but they just had to pander to kids.

So yeah, it’s a flawed film. I’ve seen worse, just not in a film so close to being something special. Blue Sky is often like that but this time I’m especially disappointed …But you did a good enough on some parts to make me like it, so there you go.

Rating: Good

I know this sounds more like a Decent but the high points are oddly high and the ending is good enough for me. Just know I do have…problems with this one.

And that ends 2017 Animation. Overall, it was an…okay year. I don’t think it was bad but a lot of the movies were just okay or good but could have been better. In a way, it was this movie: Had some high good moments but low some bad moments.

These bad moments may or may not have involved Emojis. There were about 3 or 3 I flat out didn’t like, and about 5 Average ones. But 8 were Good or higher so that’s not bad. Although that’s only cuz one of them was an Anime film I’ll get to in a list coming up, hint hint.

You can go now if you don’t care about this stuff, next General Review is Monday for that space movie no one cares about.

But if you want to stay, here’s my 2017 Animated Film Ranking:

MEH:

Bunyan and Babe (This was in development for almost a decade and it came out for FREE on Google Play . Enough said

Spark: A Space Tail (Bland)

Rock Dog

The Emoji Movie

AVERAGE:

The Boss Baby

Leap! (Fine)

The Star

The Nut Job 2

Despicable Me 3

GOOD:

Smurfs: The Love Village

Ferdinand

My Little Pony The Movie (Full review coming 2018)

The LEGO Ninjago Movie

Cars 3

Captain Underpants

VERY GOOD:

The LEGO Batman Movie

Your Name

Coco

Don’t @ Me for some choices. See my reviews of each for full thoughts. So this year was mixed but it had some gold beyond the Emoji’s. And Space Monkeys.

With that said,let’s look to the future and say my expectations for the animated films of 2017, that I at least know will come out next year, in rough Alphabetical order:

Duck Duck Goose: I never heard of this until I got a trailer in front of Nut Job 2. …It looks bad

Early Man: Aardman always does solid work and this looks really cool.

Gnome Alone: It’s from the studio that brought us Space Chimps 2 and Happily N’ever after. I don’t have high hopes.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Could be fun, could be weak, we’ll see

How the Grinch Stole Christmas: It’s been done well twice, why do it again? It better be good if it’s worth doing again.

The Incredibles 2: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

Isles of Dogs: Fantastic Mr Fox was pretty good so I bet Wes Anderson will wow us again.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2: I’m a bit worried the story may take a backseat, but I hope it’s fun. Even with that awful title.

Sgt Stubby An American Hero: Same as Duck Duck Goose, although it looks…a bit better?

Sherlock Gnomes: Why

Smallfoot: Seems a bit cliché but it could be fun, it is from Warner Animation Group after all.

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse: I was already hyped, but after that trailer…SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

Teen Titans Go to the Movies: …I’m actually interested to see what the hell they do with this one.

Should be an interesting year. So there you go, that will be all. Dabbing Getman Horses.

See ya.