Vegan Movie Review of Ferdinand
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Art From a Vegan Heart
January 2018

Ferdinand the movie

I'm going to come out and say it. Ferdinand is a very pro-animal rights movie. The entire premise of the movie is that bulls are being either killed in bullfights or they are sent to slaughter. Nothing about this movie makes excuses for animal agriculture or the abuses that these animals endure.

There are a few ill-placed play on words that I'll mention below, but the rest of the movie is very well done and is perfect for teaching kids that animals do not want to die. There is even a scene in a slaughterhouse. And while it is not graphic or necessarily inappropriate for kids, it is clear enough that nothing humane happens in a slaughterhouse. Even for vegan adults, this movie is well worth seeing. It is basically the cow version of Charlotte's Web or Babe.

Elements in the movie that are possibly disturbing to a vegan:

  1. The goat character calls the horse a 'glue stick'.
  2. The goat says 'Holy Beefaroni' near the cows.
  3. Some cows are acknowledged to have died in the bull fight.
  4. One cow is offensively named Angus, and he calls another cow a 'bag of meat'.
  5. There is a slaughter house scene and a slaughter truck with the diagram of cuts of meat of a cow. (this is shown in a negative light and lent sympathy to the animal rights cause, but still might be hard to see).
  6. The horns of bulls that died in past bullfights are hanging on the wall in one seen (but this is shown in a sad way, not a positive way).
  7. Most bulls are shown to be violent and wanting to fight in the bull fights. But this was linked to the assumption that if they won, they would go free (and possibly a plot device to show character development in the other bulls).

All of that being said, these inappropriate attempts at using word play to get a laugh are minor issues in an otherwise hugely pro-animal rights movie. I think all vegans will enjoy this movie in spite of these few shortcomings!

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