In the Ring: Trailer for 'Ferdinand' Arrives

At last, a trailer for Blue Sky's new animated picture is out!

Ferdinand is based on the classic children's book that was first published in 1936. Walt Disney himself adapted it into a solid animated short two years later, this Blue Sky adaptation happens to be the first feature-length film take on the story. Rio director Carlos Saldanha is at the helm. It also has two co-directors attached, four writers, and a long-list of producers... Paul Fieg (Bridesmaids, Blue Sky's own Peanuts Movie) being one of them.


I have to say... This was a pretty decent trailer!

It was refreshingly quiet, quieter than most American trailers for animated movies that is. No ping-ponging, no noise, surprisingly it's quite calm. It introduces the titular bull with no fuss, it hints at the picture's more emotional side, the montage set to the song is pretty good, and the china shop gag is actually a lot of fun. If we are to believe Mythbusters, a bull would likely navigate a place like a china shop with precision. It was cool to see them play with that gag here.

Yes, I am more curious now. It looks like a potential dark horse, ermm... Dark bull? Anyways, I hope it fares well this coming holiday season. 20th Century Fox apparently thinks this thing can do well as counter-progamming against The Last Jedi, let's just hope the budget wasn't much higher than usual $90-100 million Blue Sky usually spends on their features, and let's hope the overseas markets are charitable if the film comes up short in the domestic market.

What say you?

Fox, The Bullfighter: Fox Pits 'Ferdinand' Against 'Star Wars'

Confidence? Or lack of faith that I find disturbing?

Fox has moved Blue Sky's Ferdinand, a new adaptation of the classic children's book about a bull who would rather smell flowers than participate in a bullfight, up a week. It is now set to open the same day as Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Literally, Fox is the bullfighter here... Star Wars will either charge this thing right out of the ring, or Ferdinand will somehow hold up. But here's the thing. This new Blue Sky film, to me, is more than just blockbuster counter-programming. I get it in a way. Star Wars is a PG-13 spectacle for everyone, while families who aren't willing to take their young'uns to it - or if it's sold out at their local multiplexes - can turn to Ferdinand. Worked for Fox's own Alvin and the Hipmunks 4, so why not this?

But I think it's more than that. As we all know now, not every animated family film is destined to magically pull big numbers out of a hat. Blue Sky's films, on average, cost about $90-100 million to make. The ideal situation? The film in question pulls about $250-300 million at the worldwide box office. Some of Blue Sky's recent films have barely topped $100 million domestically, and in one case, completely missed it.

That very film was last summer's Ice Age 5, the franchise is fortunately something of a hot commodity in other parts of the world. It was pretty much saved there, but something like Epic or Peanuts or Ferdinand? Well, those are arguably untested with worldwide audiences. Epic didn't soar overseas, nor did the film based on the iconic comic strip. So Ferdinand's foreign gross is totally up in the air as well, though I can see it doing well in Spain and parts of Europe given the setting.

In short, I don't want it to flop, because things happen when most animated movies flop. Artists may get laid off, or certain films aren't tried again. Blue Sky has yet to see a big flop. So I don't know about the slight date change. I think they should've kept it for the week after Star Wars, so that after Star Wars blasts everything to smithereens, it can then quietly have a nice start up.

Let's look at holiday legs...

Holiday family films tend to have very strong legs, like most holiday releases. The third Chipmunks movie opened much lower than its predecessors, but legs got it past $100 million stateside. The fourth one opened embarrassingly low, but had the legs to make it up to $85 million stateside. Paramount dumped The Adventures of Tintin faster than a moldy sandwich, but after such a terrible opening, it heave-ho'ed to $77 million. Yogi Bear? Same thing. Small-as-heck opening, climbed to $100 million. The Emperor's New Groove is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Disney left that one to die in mid-December of 2000, and lo and behold... After an abysmal opening, it climbed with its might, all the way up to $89 million. (Adjusted, that's: $15 OW / $139m DOM)

Some of those had reasonable budgets, some of them didn't, others had to rely on worldwide grosses. Tintin was thankfully saved by very strong overseas grosses, given the legacy of the comic series it's based on. Emperor's New Groove on the other hand was born out of cancelled movie that had already cost Disney greatly, thus it was pretty expensive, and worldwide grosses did not - unfortunately - come to the rescue. Let's hope Ferdinand isn't expected to make too much.

So, what's Fox's game here? Do you think Ferdinand could do well? Sound off below.

Blue Sky's Bull: First Image from 'Ferdinand' and Some Cast Details

Blue Sky's next feature is not out until till Christmas time, but some information on the somewhat-cryptic picture has finally surfaced...

Ferdinand, as expected, is based on the classic 1936 children's book The Story of Ferdinand. Walt Disney adapted it into an animated short in 1938, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short of that year. The book itself, back in the day, was actually pretty controversial despite being a simple little story about a peaceful bull refusing to be a part of bullfights. Was it pacifist? Fascist? It made a real impact, that's for sure.

How they can successfully stretch that to 90 minutes is beyond me, but we shall see... Now we know what the titular character will look like in Blue Sky CG form, thanks to an image posted by brand agency Merchantwise...

Nothing too amazing, the image looks like most DVD/Blu-ray covers for animated films these days, you know which ones I'm talking about? The ones that just have a close-up of a character against a plain, colored background. Anyways, the design's appealing and I'm not sure I like the new logo for the film, but a logo is a logo. The full package matters most.

The site also reveals that Adam Devine will be voicing Ferdinand, and Kate McKinnon will play Lupe, a friend and "trusted advisor". Gabriel Iglesias was announced as part of the cast back in November, as a character named Cuatro. I wonder if they'll set the story in 1936 Spain, or modern day Spain.

Anyways, I'm curious to see how Blue Sky pulls this one off. What say you?