How Long Is The Movie Ferdinand

Ferdinand, voiced by John Cena, and Nina (Julia Saldanha and Lily Twenty-four hours). Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Play tricks Film Corporation hibernate caption

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Bluish Sky Studios/20th Century Play tricks Picture Corporation

Millions of people have read Munro Foliage's The Story of Ferdinand since it was first published in 1936. Two years later, Disney turned it into it an Oscar-winning short motion-picture show. Now, the peaceful balderdash who prefers sniffing flowers to bullfighting is getting an update from 20th Century Pull a fast one on. And that bull has been on quite a journey to get hither.

John Cena, the actor who voices Ferdinand in the new movie, recently read the original story to hundreds of DC public school kids at the Library of Congress. On a table next to him were two early on editions of the book from the library's collection. Ane was from 1938, the other from 1936.

"We're going to expect at the 1936 edition merely not impact it," Cena told the students. "It'south very frail and very important, and the people from the Library of Congress were very thorough in saying like, 'Hey, don't touch the kickoff book.'"

Precious Ferdinand, even when he grows to be bigger than all the other bulls, even so doesn't want to fight. He just wants to sit down under the cork tree and smell flowers. Simply when he sits on a bumblebee, he goes berserk, puffing and kicking. The matadors watching are ecstatic.

The Story of Ferdinand is i of Time mag's "100 Best Children'southward Books of All Time." At 1 point in the late 1930s, it was outselling Gone With The Wind, which is pretty astonishing for something that was written in less than an hour.

NPR interviewed Munro Leaf'south widow, Margaret, in 1986, 10 years after her hubby'due south death. "The depression was nearly over," she recalled. "We were very poor." One Sunday afternoon, she was reading a manuscript for a publisher to brand some actress money.

"I was going to become $25 for reading it, and then it was very of import, and he kept bothering me, trying to interrupt me. So I finally said to him, 'Get lost, go and amuse yourself. Do something.' Well-nigh 35 to 40 minutes afterward, he said 'Listen to this,' and he read me Ferdinand. And there it was in pencil on half dozen sheets of yellow legal pad."

Leafage gave the story to his friend, illustrator Robert Lawson, who brought it to life with detailed, whimsical, pen and ink drawings. The book took off.

In that location was the Disney short, Ferdinand merchandise, a balloon at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving parade, songs and author interviews.

In 1948, Leaf talked to the Chicago radio show, The Hobby Horse Presents. Children on the evidence asked him what books he read when he was ten and a half.

"Oh gee, I read everything I could get my hands on really," he said. "Couple of them I know that I read about that time that stand out as vividly today, and that's Treasure Island was one, and The Wizard Of Oz to me was one of the nicest books I ever found."

In the late 1930s, The Story of Ferdinand briefly outsold Gone With The Wind. Penguin Young Readers hide explanation

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Penguin Young Readers

In the belatedly 1930s, The Story of Ferdinand briefly outsold Gone With The Current of air.

Penguin Immature Readers

The book's popularity coincided with the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, Leaf told an audience he received letters lament that "Ferdinand was red propaganda," others that "information technology was fascist propaganda." A woman'southward order said information technology was "unworthy satire of the peace movement." It was banned in Espana; Hitler burned it.

But Margaret Foliage told NPR that Munro wasn't trying to be political. "He wasn't a pacifist, but he was a peaceful man," she said.

Director Carlos Saldanha is the latest to interpret Ferdinand, in the new characteristic film adaptation. "I think Ferdinand is this misinterpreted, misjudged character," he says.

Munro Leaf's story is only almost 800 words, then with the Leaf family's permission, Saldanha did some fleshing out. The director created new characters, like a goat who lives in Ferdinand's stall, and he gave voices to the other bulls in Munro Leaf's story. When they're young, they make fun of Ferdinand'south refusal to butt heads. So Ferdinand outgrows them.

"He is trying to show them a unlike side of life, a dissimilar understanding of life," Saldanha says. "And for him, you don't really need to fight to exist a fighter."

For the voice of Ferdinand, Saldanha picked someone who fights for a living, a half dozen'ane, 251 pound wrestler with the WWE — John Cena.

"He almost represents, visually, Ferdinand," Saldanha tells NPR. "Similar he's so large and massive and people translate him as this massive guy that picks fights and all this stuff simply actually he's not at all. And he'southward super gentle."

Cena confirmed that he's misjudged for his size. He says information technology's a universal feeling. "At that place isn't a human walking the earth that [can] say 'Everybody gets me all the fourth dimension.' That'due south why I recall, another reason the book is timeless. We're all misunderstood."

Munro Leaf died in 1976. He wrote other books, but none that had the global success of Ferdinand. His son, Andy Leaf, says his male parent was amused by all of the different interpretations. "He was very smart that mode. He just let people translate information technology as they wished."

In the end, Ferdinand stays truthful to himself, sitting under his favorite cork tree, smelling the flowers quietly. Ferdinand, the movie version, comes out afterwards this week, merely the book volition likely be around forever.

Researcher Jane Gilvin contributed to this report.

This story was edited for radio by Andrew Limbong and Rose Friedman, and adapted for the Web by Sydnee Monday and Petra Mayer.