Ferdinand the Bull
Ferdinand only wants to stop and smell the flowers.
1938 | 8m | English
Popularity: 1 (history)
| Director: | Dick Rickard |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Robert Lawson, Munro Leaf |
| Staring: |
| 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. | |
| Release Date: | Nov 23, 1938 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Dick Rickard |
| Writer: | Robert Lawson, Munro Leaf |
| Genres: | Animation, Comedy, Family |
| Keywords | cartoon, short film |
| Production Companies | Walt Disney Productions |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $66,260 |
| Updates |
Updated: Feb 04, 2026 Entered: Apr 13, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Milt Kahl | Ferdinand (voice) |
| Don Wilson | Narrator (voice) |
| Walt Disney | Ferdinand's Mother (voice) |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Ward Kimball | Animation |
| Dick Rickard | Director |
| Jack Bradbury | Animation |
| Robert Lawson | Novel |
| Munro Leaf | Novel |
| Claude Coats | Background Designer |
| Albert Hay Malotte | Original Music Composer |
| Bernard Garbutt | Animation |
| Don Lusk | Animation |
| Stan Quackenbush | Animation |
| Robert Stokes | Animation |
| Thor Putnam | Layout |
| Martin Provensen | Characters |
| Gordon Legg | Title Graphics |
| Hamilton Luske | Animation |
| Milt Kahl | Animation |
| Jack Campbell | Animation |
| Ford Beebe | Assistant Director |
| Ken Anderson | Background Designer, Layout |
| Vernon Stallings | Storyboard |
| Marc Davis | Animation Production Assistant |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Walt Disney | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 16 | 20 | 11 |
| 2024 | 5 | 17 | 23 | 12 |
| 2024 | 6 | 16 | 30 | 7 |
| 2024 | 7 | 15 | 25 | 9 |
| 2024 | 8 | 13 | 19 | 9 |
| 2024 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 6 |
| 2024 | 10 | 12 | 26 | 7 |
| 2024 | 11 | 12 | 25 | 7 |
| 2024 | 12 | 13 | 21 | 8 |
| 2025 | 1 | 13 | 17 | 8 |
| 2025 | 2 | 10 | 17 | 3 |
| 2025 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 2026 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2026 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Trending Position
All poor old “Ferdy” wants to do is sit in peace and enjoy his flowery pasture, but when he gets stung by a bee he runs rampage and that impresses the local bigwigs who conclude he’d be a terror at the next bullfight. With posters everywhere depicting this terrifying and horned beast, he arrives in ... the ring only to have reverted to his old, gentle, self. No amount of provocation is going to get him to attack the toreador, especially when he espies a posy of flowers thrown into the arena that just reminds him of home. Might he ever manage to charge or is he just destined to head back to his life unheralded? This is really quite an enjoyable animation made more so by some comical facial expressions from amongst the crowd and by the sheer exasperation felt by a bull-fighter who will do just about anything to get a chance to fight the bull! “Ferdinand” is blithely oblivious to all the fuss, the noise and the expectations - and I did quite like the lack of an obvious moral that so often bogged down Disney’s cartoons. Taken on face value, it is entertaining stuff that I quite enjoyed.