What is the fate of a cow? Either as a beef cow/dairy cow or as a bullfighter.
Beef cattle will be killed, and bullfights will be killed.
But there was a cow who didn't want to be a beef cow or a bullfighter, and he liked flowers, he liked to smell flowers quietly.
This is the core story of the animated film "The Adventures of the Bull" produced by Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios.
It's a lovely story.
The story was co-created by American cartoonists Robert Lawson and Manro Reeve, who drew the story in 1936, and the story was loved by people all over the world and translated into more than sixty languages.
When this story was drawn, Lawson was 44 years old, Reeve was 31 years old, and according to the current algorithm, both of them were already middle-aged and elderly, but it was these two middle-aged and elderly men who drew a simple and cute story.
Robert Lawson on the left, Manro Reeve on the right.
In Spain, there was a little bull named Ferdinand, who, unlike any other bull, liked to fight, he liked to fight, he wanted to be a bullfight, he liked to sit under a big tree at the top of the hill, quietly smelling the flowers. His mother thought it was a little different, but seeing that he was quite comfortable, she went with it. One day, five bull-pickers came to the pasture, and the other bulls tried their best to behave in front of them, but Ferdinand returned to his big tree as usual to smell the flowers. But he accidentally sat on a bumblebee, wasp stabbed, he ran and howled, was chosen by the bullfighters to be the most ferocious bull, so he was taken to the bullring, just when everyone around him was expecting it to perform, he saw the flowers worn by the female audience, so he sat quietly and smelled the flowers. In the end, he was sent back to the ranch and continued to sit under the big tree to smell the flowers, and lived happily.
▲ The cover and inner page of "The Cow Who Loves Flowers".
Simple stories, but meaningless, there are many kinds of explanations. Some people think that this is an LGBT story, some people think that this is an anti-war story, think of the flower children in the anti-war movement in the United States in the 1960s, holding flowers, to be peaceful, to love, not to war, it is not difficult to feel that there are commonalities.
Blue Sky Studio, on this basis, developed a slightly tortuous story, becoming "The Adventures of the Bull", in which Ferdinand was born in a bull farm where bulls were bred, and his father was sent to be a bullfighter, so he set out to find his father, and during the trip, he met a beautiful farm, with hills, meadows, woods, and large flowers, where it grew up, and fell in love with smelling flowers under the trees. Later, he experienced various twists and turns, encountered various animals, was sent back to the cattle farm where he was born, and when he escaped, he walked into the owner's house of the cattle farm across the wall, but found that the glory of becoming a bullfight was actually a deception, and all the cattle would eventually be killed, whether as beef cattle or bullfighting. He had to go back to the flower-filled farm.
▲ Ferdinand and his little friend.
Ferdinand represents a philosophy of life, an individualistic, self-indulgent, self-fulfilling philosophy of life. In a story, such a philosophy is not enough, so the screenwriters use another bull, Valente, to represent another philosophy of life, which is contrasted with Ferdinand.
Radical, aggressive, and self-motivated, Valent believes that being a bullfighter is a great honor and can be freed and consummated, believing that "soft-hearted guys are doomed to fail" and "don't do bullfighting, just be beef cattle". Other bullfighting, like it, aspires to be a bullfighter, and even finds a set of aesthetics in bullfighting, believing that bullfighting is beautiful for bulls, meaning "footsteps, rhythm and elegance".
Obvious metaphor.
▲The flowers in this movie are all so clumsy and cute.
Ferdinand did not believe in this set, the honor of becoming a bullfighter, the deception set by humans, had nothing to do with it, he was naturally immune to these things, all he wanted was to smell the flowers quietly.
If he likes flowers, he can always meet flowers, he can find flowers anytime and anywhere, and then start to wander. It doesn't matter if it's on the ranch or in the bullring. It was in the bullring that he could take an interest in the carnations on the matador with a few long knives pointed at it.
There is a very moving scene where he is locked up in a cattle farm, standing under the window, thinking of the meadows and flowers in the pasture. Let me think of when I was young, when the work was difficult, or when the meeting was lengthy, I immediately thought of the grassland and the sea of flowers in my hometown in southern Xinjiang, especially in the spring, the flowers on the grassland were blooming, there was a grand and solemn feeling, the flowers were overflowing, all kinds of grass were pulling joints, bees and butterflies were busy, and when they came back from a wandering, even the meeting suddenly became cute.
Everyone must have such a place where they can wander. Therefore, robert Bog Harrison in "The Garden: Talking about the Human Being", repeatedly discussed what "garden" means to human beings, why should we build a garden when we already have a more real and vast natural world, and carefully maintain and relish it, because the construction of the garden is not simply miniature nature, imitating nature, but because: "Only when the surrounding things have meaning, can they become human beings." ”
Man does not live to become a warrior, a fighter, and if he does not fall in love with a flower, a garden, and does not be able to maintain his own flowers and gardens, it is the greatest wave.
Of course, fighting is inevitable, for the flowers, for the garden, still have to fight. However, such a battle is launched for oneself, not for others, for others to package the honor. In the original, Ferdinand gives up fighting and is sent back to the ranch, while in the movie, Ferdinand is constantly fighting, he is running, he is rescuing his kind, he is confronting the bullfighter on the bullring, and only then can he return to his garden. He was fighting not to go to war. Such a battle is also very good.
For Hollywood, making such an animation is handy, both in terms of story and technology. The director of "The Adventures of the Bull" is Carlos Schardanha, director of "Ice Age 5: Interstellar Collision" and "Rio Adventure 2", and Ferdinand is voiced by the famous American professional wrestling league champion John Senna. The whole story is gorgeous, and the plot is tense and warm.
▲ The voice actors of "The Adventures of the Bull", the following one, is Fernand and his voice performer, professional athlete John Senna.
But what I remember most is the core part of the story, a cow that loves to smell flowers. A cow that looks savage and fierce, but will stop from time to time and sniff the roses.
Such cattle give birth to real cows.
Every time I write about an animated movie, someone always asks, is it suitable for taking children to watch? This time is certainly no exception.
Fit, well suited.