Most of the characters in Ferdinand are static and one dimensional. Ferdinand, voiced by John Cena, is one of the few likable characters in the movie. He doesn’t have much of an arc to his character at all, but he’s funny, charming, and simply smells flowers and enjoys life. All of the bulls insult and tear into Ferdinand for not wanting to fight, and for good reason. The other bulls all want to fight the matador and have spent their entire lives preparing for this moment. The antagonist bull, Valiente, just wants to live up to his (as well as all the other bulls for that matter) sole purpose of fighting and defeating the matador. Valiente is mean, brusk, and violent but only because he's been raised that way since childhood. He wants to be chosen to fight the matador, to him nothing else matters. He doesn’t want to be a ‘flower sniffing bull’ or worse, a bull not good enough for the arena that ends up going to ‘the chop shop’ (certain death), and I respect that. But, Ferdinand, through his charm and friendliness, convinces them not to fight, and then they all run away with him, including the purposed Valiente.

There are some pretty terrible characters in this movie. The three German stallions are just awful, and their appearance results in an awkward, unfunny dance competition that comes out of nowhere and is just painful to watch. The worst character, however, is the Calming Goat, Lupe, played by Kate Mckinnon, who just won’t stop talking. Her character is truly annoying and obnoxious. Everything that comes out of her mouth is supposed to be funny but is lazily written at best and idiotic at worst. Her character is just terrible and I don’t know why it was included in this movie. Other than the bad jokes, the goat adds nothing but exposition that we could have gotten from the other bulls in the story instead.