Review of Ferdinand (2017) by Connor S — 18 Dec 2017

I have to say, releasing your movie on the same weekend as the new Star Wars takes guts. It doesn't seem to take being a good movie, however, because Ferdinand isn't that good of a movie.

For what it's worth, Ferdinand isn't a horrible movie. At the very least, it has a positive message to put out. The only complain I have against the animation is that the animals often look too human and the humans don't look human enough. Other than that, the animation holds up pretty well against other animated movies. The sound also stacks up well, but it sometimes falters. Inexplicably, the movie can lose its sense of audio balance. Dialogue or music can occasionally have too soft volume. Unfortunately for the movie, this happens at the worst possible moment: the climax, killing any emotional impact it could have had. The climax also suffers from a poor choice in soundtrack, which does not match the mood of the scene at all.

Maybe Coco has spoiled me, but I was disappointed that a movie that portrays Spanish culture features almost no Hispanic actors in its main cast. There's not much cultural authenticity in this movie at all. In fact, for a movie that's all about defying stereotypes, it sure does feature a lot of benign stereotypes, notably David Tennant's (Doctor Who) Scottish bull. While I definitely would not call The Last Jedi a kids' movie, it probably is the better choice for kids right now.