Ferdinand, der Stier

After decades, it remains a delightful short animation. About simplicity, about contemplation and about to be a bull in own terms. The drawings, the story, the humor are the same pillars of seduction. A lovely short film and a pure gem.

"Ferdinand" has the same lush art direction and is based on the same kind of sweet parable as a Silly Symphony, and was released while that series was still going (it would end on a high note with "The Ugly Duckling" in 1939), but it's something else altogether: the first of Disney's "storybook" cartoons. It is, in fact, based on a children's storybook, but that's not the point. The point is that there is spoken narration, and the drawings ILLUSTRATE the narration, much as they would illustrate the printed text in a picture book.

So far as I know this is the first cartoon from ANY studio to attempt this kind of thing. It's not the best; narration and illustration are too independent of one another. I'm not saying that Disney should have used any of those old cartoon gimmicks - characters arguing with the narrator, etc. - which postmodernists delight in as though they weren't half obvious; such gimmicks would not, in a sincere work such as this, have worked. But words and pictures should partner each other in a subtle dance; each should know when to withdraw and place the narrative burden upon the other. I can't put it more precisely than this; but watch two "storybook" cartoons that Disney produced later - "Lambert the Sheepish Lion" from 1951, "Pigs is Pigs" from 1954 - to see the dance perfected, resulting in an animated storytelling sessions that FLOW, from beginning to end.

To be fair, unqualified successes like these are rare. Most of Disney's later "storybook" cartoons also get it wrong, some of them are dreadful, and not a single one apart from the two I've named can match the charm of the first.

Walt Disney was dominating the animation field in the late 1930s. In the 1938 Academy Awards Best Animated Shorts category, four out of the five cartoons nominated for best cartoon were produced by Disney. Competition within Walt's studio was fierce to win the Oscar, yet a peace-loving bull whose interest is more in smelling flowers than attacking a matador's red cape in November 1938's "Ferdinand the Bull" beat out Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a 'Silly Symphony' entry. The bull's win broke a six-year streak by the 'Silly Symphony's' animators, who had won that category since cinema's first three-strip Technicolor cartoon, 1932's "Flowers and Trees." "Ferdinand the Bull" beat out Disney's 'Silly Symphony's' 'Mother Goose Goes to Hollywood'-the third-to-last cartoon in that highly-successful series-Mickey Mouse's 'Brave Little Tailor,' Donald Duck's 'Good Little Scout,' and Max Fleischer's 'Hunky and Spunky.'

"Ferdinand the Bull," based on American author 1936 Munro Leaf's book, 'The Story of Ferdinand,' features a bull who loves nature rather than fighting other bulls. When a group of bullfighting scouts are canvasing the area for bulls, Ferdinand's colleagues, who are raised to fight one another, show off their beastly skills. Our hero Ferdinand, whose passion is smelling flowers, accidentally sits on a bee's stinger, sending him into a frenzy and knocking all the other bulls on their keisters. The scouts are so impressed with Ferdinand's hutzpah they haul him to their bull ring.

At the day of his fateful battle with the matador, whose face looks like Walt Disney, Ferdinand is escorted by his handlers. These assistants' appearances were an inside joke by the cartoonists who drew their faces to resemble those who created "Ferdinand the Bull.' Ferdinand demonstrates to the angry bulls destined to meet their eventual deaths in the ring that the best way to escape such a fate is to take the time to smell the flowers tossed into the ring by admiring women spectators to the matadors they love. The leftists fighting in the Spanish Civil War at the time saw the cartoon as a parable for pacifism. They remembered the lessons of Ferdinand when they assumed power in Spain, and insisted on remaining neutral during World War Two.

"Ferdinand the Bull" is included in the Disney Christmas special 'From All of Us to All of You,' first shown on television in 1958. The extravaganza has since been dropped from its United States' TV line-up during the holiday season, but in the Scandinavian countries the program is a Christmas Eve ritual on their broadcasting stations. In 1982, Swedish TV programmers decided to tinker with the cartoons in the 90-minute show, and replaced "Ferdinand the Bull" with the Academy Award-winner 1939's "The Ugly Duckling," a Silly Symphony cartoon. The telephones of the country's TV stations lit up with viewers protesting the switch. With its tail between the legs, Sweden reinserted Ferdinand into the special the following year. The Disney Christmas show in these Scandinavian countries consistently ranks as one of the most popular television programs for the entire year.

There is some historical significance associated with the story of Ferdinand the Bull as the Spanish Civil War is said to have begun a few months after the story of Ferdinand was written. The domestic harmless nature of the bull is said to represent pacifistic views towards the situation in Spain. Munro Leaf may have partly been influenced by the political climate around him while writing about Ferdinand, but this remains uncertain.

The 1938 short by Disney does not consider all this, and is more concerned with showing Ferdinand's love for flowers. Ferdinand does not care about bull fights unlike his fellow bulls, and prefers reclining under his favorite tree, inhaling the sweet fragrance of the flowers. His mother, despite being a 'cow' is very considerate and allows him to do as he likes. But after a bee accident, Ferdinand is thought to be the most ferocious of bulls and is brought to the bull fight. His name too changes to 'Ferdinand the Fierce' for the event; everyone including the bullfighter is scared of him and they anticipate his grand entry. What happens after this surprises everyone in the story but now us because we already know how Ferdinand actually is.

This story would have been stratospherically more poignant and rich had auteur Frederic Back made it; remember how he beautifully used the chair as a motif while showing the rapid transformation of Quebec society in his brilliant short 'Crac'. Ferdinand the Bull would have got that flavor of Spain had Back made this film; however, Disney does enough justice to make this film watchable and enjoyable. Ferdinand the Bull hence does not wow us but it does bring a smile upon our faces, which is Disney's primary aim.

Verdict: Would have been stratospherically more poignant and richer had Frederic Back made 'Ferdinand the Bull', but Disney does manage to make the short entertaining enough

Ferdinand the Bull is one of the most unflappable characters in all of cartoondom. He is a gentle soul, completely happy in his own skin. He inadvertently becomes a participant in a bull ring because he sat on a bee and went into a rage. One wonderful thing is that he never varied from his primary goal: to smell the flowers.