Movie review
December 9, 2017 · 108 min · PG
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Ferdinand.
Woke representation / casting
Diverse voices appear in fun supporting animal roles, yet nothing signals identity priorities, quota casting, or mismatched “brilliant” competence in prominent parts; the story world of Spanish bulls and farm animals stays consistent.
Woke political dialogue
A few lines about rejecting aggression and staying true to your nature appear in comedic context; no activist jargon, institutional critiques, or modern political lectures.
Identity-driven story themes
The central idea of embracing gentleness over expected toughness and succeeding as misfits through friendship comes straight from the 1936 book and stays universal and light; no race, gender, sexuality, or identity-politics layering.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Bullfighting is shown as cruel and pointless, with the story favoring compassion instead — a mild challenge to one traditional practice rooted in the source material and animal-kindness messaging rather than modern anti-patriarchy, anti-Western, or systemic identity framing.
Review
Ferdinand is a 2017 computer-animated family comedy adventure from Blue Sky Studios. It follows a giant but peaceful bull who loves flowers and refuses to fight, gets taken to a bullfighting ranch by mistake, escapes with a group of misfit animal friends, and returns home while proving he can stay true to himself. The story centers on compassion, individuality, and rejecting pointless violence in a light, kid-friendly way drawn straight from its 1936 source book. No modern identity politics, DEI-style representation pushes, activist dialogue, or social-justice framing appears in the plot, characters, marketing, or production.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film expands the short book with new adventure beats and characters for feature length but makes no identity-driven or DEI-style alterations to the source story or any real figures.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No notable right-leaning or anti-woke complaints exist that treat the film as pushing woke, DEI, or identity politics; reception stayed focused on family entertainment value.
Creator track record context
Most key creatives are mainstream family-animation professionals with clean records; original author carried historical pacifist-era associations but denied political intent, and one writer’s separate queer-literature work exists outside this project’s messaging.
Production
