Ferdinand, directed by Carlos Saldanha

Ferdinand, the film, is based on the 1936 book The Story of Ferdinand, written by Munro Leaf and illustrated in black-and- white by Robert Lawson.  I accompanied my wife and daughter to this at our local theatre, The Alpine, in a showing sponsored by my daughter's school.  My response:  stick to the charming book or, at least, the eight-minute hand-drawn version directed for Disney by Dick Rickard in 1938, a version that even includes Ferdinand's mother, who is not in the new version; it's available on YouTube.

The 2017 version of Ferdinand is directed by Carlos Saldanha in a typically bloated version of computer animation.  The narrative comes to the same conclusion as the book --be yourself-- but includes endless examples of what one can do with computer animation these days, regardless of any narrative logic: Ferdinand includes "a bull in a china shop" scene and plenty of talking and wise-cracking animals, including some Lipizzaner horses doing some bizarre and pointless choreography.

Carlos Saldanha is Brazilian and bullfighting has never been successful in Brazil, though the Portuguese version does not include killing the bull in the ring.  Ferdinand takes place in Spain and is somewhat coy about what actually happens at a bullfight, though it does show the "chop shop" where bulls are sent if they are considered unsuitable for the ring.