Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
Ferdinand only wants to stop and smell the flowers.
Director: Dick Rickard
This Oscar-winning short tells of a bull who preferred to sit under trees and smell flowers to clashing horns with his fellow animals. As luck would have it, an untimely bee reveals Ferdinand's ferocious side via pained howls and wild stomping. This lands him in the bull-fighting arena amidst characters based on Walt's animators with a matador reportedly modeled after Walt himself.
Where to watch
Disney Plus
Director
Dick Rickard
Cast
Milt Kahl
Don Wilson
Walt Disney
User Reviews (2)
All poor old “Ferdy” wants to do is sit in peace and enjoy his flowery pasture, but when he gets stung by a bee he runs rampage and that impresses the local bigwigs who conclude he’d be a terror at the next bullfight. With posters everywhere depicting this terrifying and horned beast, he arrives in the ring only to have reverted to his old, gentle, self. No amount of provocation is going to get him to attack the toreador, especially when he espies a posy of flowers thrown into the arena that just reminds him of home. Might he ever manage to charge or is he just destined to head back to his life unheralded? This is really quite an enjoyable animation made more so by some comical facial expressions from amongst the crowd and by the sheer exasperation felt by a bull-fighter who will do just about anything to get a chance to fight the bull! “Ferdinand” is blithely oblivious to all …
In a world that often demands brute force and pushes aggressive stereotypes, it’s surprising to find the answer to true courage in an animated short from almost a century ago. "Ferdinand the Bull" isn't just a forgotten gem from Disney's golden age; it’s a timeless manifesto on the right to be vulnerable and the liberating power of embracing who we truly are. Get ready to discover why this classic, clocking in at under ten minutes, still has so much to teach us today, proving that the deepest messages can come from the simplest stories. When looking at the core of this short, I immediately notice how touching its pacifist heart is. I can't help but feel deeply connected to the main message: we don't have to bow down to the aggressive and violent expectations the world often forces on us. Thinking about the film, it became clear to me that its critique of masculine stereotypes a…
