Though he looks like he eats cement and can crack dudes in half like Bane snapping Batman across his knee, John Cena’s just a big ol’ softie on the inside. The professional fighter has always been warm and cordial to his many fans, he loves posting dumb jokes online (the ultimate Celebrities! They're Just Like Us move), and he proved himself a game comic performer in 2015’s Trainwreck with Amy Schumer and Sisters starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. In this respect, he’s the perfect choice to voice Ferdinand, a mighty bull with a kind and gentle heart. If the role was any more squarely in Cena’s wheelhouse, he’d be romancing an esteemed comedic actress.

Ferdinand may be the star of the upcoming animated film that bears his name, but his origins date back to 1936, when he was first introduced in Munro Leaf’s widely beloved children’s book about a Spanish bull who’d rather smell the flowers than participate in the bullfights. (The book and film both attribute this to Ferdinand’s unusually sweet nature, though who could blame a bull for not wanting to go to the place specifically for murdering bulls.) In the new animated film from 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios — the folks behind Ice AgeRio, and the recent Peanuts Movie — he attempts to break free from his lot in life and find a more peaceful existence among the fields of flowers, but peer pressure from his tougher fellow bulls could make that difficult for him. Joining Cena in the stable of talking-animal vocal talent will be Kate McKinnon, Gabriel Iglesias, and Gina Rodriguez.

The film has set a December 15 release date, smartly targeting parents looking for something to do with their kids over the winter break from school. And from the look of the trailer, attending this shouldn’t be as much of a chore as Ice Age 12: We’re Still Making These, either; the motivating message of sweetness and strength as not mutually exclusive is a positive for kids, and the slapstick of the literal bull-in-a-china-shop scene is amusing as well. America’s ready for adorable cartoon bull John Cena. Take a gander at the new poster below, too:

unnamed (1)
loading...

More From 100.7 KOOL FM