Ferdinand the Bull

1938 "Ferdinand only wants to stop and smell the flowers."
7.1| 0h8m| G| en| More Info
Released: 23 November 1938 Released
Producted By: Walt Disney Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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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.

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Director

Dick Rickard

Production Companies

Walt Disney Productions

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Ferdinand the Bull Audience Reviews

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Foreverisacastironmess When I first saw this I automatically thought what is perhaps the most obvious, that Ferdinand the flower sniffing bull, was gay! But on subsequent viewings I don't think that anymore and I see now that it's something just a tad more meaningful than that. Ferdinand is a peace-loving bull who doesn't want to fight. He wants to merely sit back and enjoy life. He's not really all that campy, more sleepy and dopey. He's definitely a little effeminate, so somebody for whatever reason felt that a mighty bull couldn't be a pacifist without being some kind of sissy one way or the other. Shame. If you ask me, if you want to see a real gay Disney character go see the dragon in The Reluctant Dragon. That guy is out and PROUD! :::2::: I can't believe this is so old. 1938...it looks great! The quality of the animation was superb. My favourite part is when Ferdinand goes on his mad rampage throughout the meadow. Quite where the bee stung him to arouse such a reaction is one best left to the history books! I find his movements as he demolishes all in his path and scatters the other bulls like bowling pins to be quite powerful and exceptionally well done. I think the moral is probably the same as most Disney animations-be yourself! That it is perfectly fine to be different and like what you like! There's not terribly much to it, but it's very cute, funny, charming, and beautifully animated besides.
Mightyzebra This is one of a great amount of Disney shorts called Silly Symphonies. Overall each one (from what I have seen) is very gorgeous and there are Silly Symphonies to suit all cartoon lovers' tastes.I had the pleasure of finding and watching this cartoon just now, having seen it about 8 years ago or so. Now, of course (I am younger than you may think I am) I see much more in this cartoon, the sweetness, the good animation - and the slight stereotypes with the donkeys and some of the parade on the bullfight scene.The summary pretty much explains this short. This cartoon is about a bull called Ferdinand, in Spain, who is very calm and peaceful and does not want to fight. One day, he sits on a bee and the sting makes him go wild...I like this Silly Symphony because it is incredibly sweet, it is quite funny, it has good, peaceful Disney animation, it has quite amusing slapstick, it possesses the moral that being calm and peaceful will bring you a good life, subtly embedded in this and there is a constant narrator whose voice is calm and peaceful. Apart from the middle bit of this episode I would recommend this for meditating people.Whether you mainly enjoy watching Looney Tunes (like me) or whether you watch a great deal of Disney shorts anyhow, I recommend this to anyone who likes cartoon stuff. It is very beautiful, as are a few other Silly Symphonies, such as "Little Hiyawatha" and "The Ugly Duckling". Enjoy "Ferdinand the Bull"! :-)
Robert Reynolds Disney has had a reputation (in large part, justifiably so) for taking literary works and making them overly cute, thereby not doing justice to the source (i.e., Bambi), but here do a wonderful job of bringing Ferdinand off the printed page and into glorious, moving color! This is one of the best shorts Disney ever did and took the Oscar for 1938, beating three other Disney shorts (including a Mickey Mouse) and a Paramount cartoon called Hunky and Spunky. With remarkable backgrounds and detail, even for a Disney cartoon, this really should be in-print. It does show on The Ink and Paint Club. Most joyously recommended!
Ron Oliver A Walt Disney Cartoon Short.Young FERDINAND THE BULL wants nothing more than to sit under his favorite cork tree, just smelling the flowers. But he is chosen to fight in the great arena in Madrid, where only the bravest, fiercest bulls have a chance for glory...This splendid cartoon, based on Munro Leaf's 1936 classic paean to individualism, is one of Disney's finest. The original story has been left basically intact - no animated mice or ducks, no dancing and/or singing trees & flowers needed here. Robert Lawson's evocative black & white drawings come to life in beautiful color & motion. The animators did have a bit of sly fun: the banderilleros & picadors are caricatures of the artists; the matador is a spoof of Walt himself (he was not amused). Don Wilson, Jack Benny's decades-long announcer, is an inspired choice as narrator. The personality & character of Ferdinand has been a matter of speculation for years, but the truth of the matter is perhaps best left in the privacy of the bull field...