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.

This is one of my favorite stories from childhood and this Disney cartoon did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the classic Muro Leaf story. The 1939 Oscars were a particularly good year, with Disney receiving 4 of 5 nominations in the category of Best Cartoon and receiving the award for FERDINAND--beating out such Disney classics as THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR and GOOD SCOUTS.The film is about a gentle bull in Spain who has no interest in fighting. Instead, he'd rather just sit and smell the flowers all day. However, when men come looking for fierce bulls for the bullfighting ring, they think Ferdinand is the meanest bull because he was just stung by a bee. What happens next you'll need to see for yourself.There is a lot to like about this cartoon. The artwork, though not exactly in the style of the children's book, is pretty close and is among the better animated shorts Disney did in the era. If you compare the artwork, music and quality to fare from Fleischer, Warner Brothers and MGM at the same time, it is light-years ahead. The best cartoons at that time were clearly Disney--with MGM and Warner Brothers still making saccharine-sweet cartoons with second-rate animation until the 1940s (when these two studios became the best maker of cartoon shorts). This film just screams "quality" throughout and deserved the Oscar.By the way, get a load of the Cork Tree! Ha!

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"! :-)

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!