Mar 28, 2017

Watch the trailer for "Ferdinand" at Blue Sky Studios

Twentieth Century Fox released a trailer today for Ferdinand, the next feature film from Blue Sky Studios:

Ferdinand is directed by Blue Sky stalwart Carlos Saldanha, who was a co-director on the studio's first feature Ice Age and has since directed Rio and Ice Age: The Meltdown on his own.

The film is based on Munro Leaf's 1936 children's book The Story of Ferdinand about a pacifist bull who prefers smelling roses to fighting in the ring. Here's the official studio description for this updated version:

Considering the short length of the original story (it was adapted as an animated short by Disney in 1938), a feature-length adaptation would require significant expansion of the original plot. That task fell to Ellen Martin, creator of the children's series Blaze and the Monster Machines, who is credited with the film's story. A host of writers followed her up on the screenplay: Erica Rivinoja (Trolls, The Last Man on Earth), Ian Southwood, and the veteran writing team of J. David Stem and David N. Weiss (The Rugrats Movie, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Shrek 2, The Smurfs).

Wrestler John Cena voices the title character. He's supported by vocal performances from Kate McKinnon, Gina Rodriguez, Daveed Diggs, Gabriel Iglesias, Bobby Cannavale, David Tennant, Anthony Anderson, Flula Borg, Sally Phillips, Boris Kodjoe, Jerrod Carmichael, Raúl Esparza, Karla Martínez, and Miguel Ángel Silvestre.

Ferdinand will be released in U.S. theaters on December 15, 2017, as counterprogramming to Disney's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which opens on the same day.