The movie follows a young bull, named Ferdinand. He starts out in a bull "training camp", Casa Del Toro, with others his age and his father. Ferdinand is a flower loving, pacifist. Ferdinand's father was the best in the "camp" and went out to fight the Matador, but does not come back. That day, Ferdinand decides to run away. He escapes and finds a farm to live on. Juan, his daughter Nina and their dog Paco welcome Ferdinand into their lives. Ferdinand and Nina create a loving bond. One day, Nina, Juan and Paco go to the city for the flower festival. Ferdinand is left behind this time because he has grown to a full size bull. He decides to follow anyways and chaos ensues. First he is the literal bull in a china shop, then he is stung by a bee and unintentionally wreaks havoc around town. The town folk are scared and he is captured and brought back to Casa Del Toro. Upon arrival, he meets and befriends Lupe, who is a crazy goat. Lupe believes she is a therapy goat for unruly bulls and then insists on being his trainer for bull fighting. Once settled in, Ferdinand finds the bulls from his childhood have grown up and added a few more bull to the group plus 3 hedgehogs who sneak through Casa Del Toro.
One day, a legendary but egotistical bullfighter named El Primero arrives at Casa del Toro to choose a bull he most admires to fight with so he can retire. When the bulls fail to impress him on the first try, Guapo is suddenly taken to a nearby slaughterhouse and the other bulls tell Ferdinand that it will be their fate once El Primero chooses a bull to fight. Although Ferdinand manages to earn the respect of the other bulls except Valiente after a dance-off with three German horses, they still hold on to the belief that fighting is the only way for them to live. Ferdinand manages to convince Lupe to come back with him to Nina's farm and the hedgehogs help them escape but when Ferdinand is close to freedom, he sees his dad's picture on a wall with his horns mounted on a wall, along with dozens of other horns, making Ferdinand realize that the bull who is chosen to fight will be slain by the matador.
Ferdinand tells the other bulls about how they will still be killed even after they're chosen to fight, but Valiente is the only one unconvinced and charges Ferdinand outside where Ferdinand inadvertently beats him in a fight and knocks off his right horn. El Primero witnesses the scuffle and chooses Ferdinand to fight after seeing him defeat Valiente. When Valiente is taken to the slaughterhouse, Ferdinand rallies up the remaining bulls to escape but goes to the slaughterhouse to break out Valiente. He is at first unwilling as he believes that the slaughterhouse is his fate now, but they discover that Guapo is still alive, and Ferdinand questions Valiente's courage.
When Ferdinand tries to save Guapo, he accidentally activates a series of deadly contraptions but, with the help of a now-friendlier Valiente, escapes the slaughterhouse and the bulls, Lupe, and hedgehogs steal the training area's company truck to escape, resulting in the head of the area, Moreno , and his employees to chase them after El Primero threatens them.
The animals try desperately to lose the humans and wind up at a city train station in Madrid that Ferdinand sees is his ticket back to Nina. When the bulls push a small railroad cart to catch the train back to Nina's home, Ferdinand sacrifices himself so the other bulls can escape (except for Lupe, who stays behind in shock after Ferdinand's act) and is captured by Moreno and his employees. When news of Ferdinand's upcoming fight with El Primero makes its way to Nina's home, she and Juan set out to Madrid to find and retrieve Ferdinand.
At the bullfight arena, Lupe tries to urge Ferdinand that he must fight in order to survive, but Ferdinand is silently unsure. When Ferdinand is released into the bullfight ring, he gives out a feeble performance with his pacifistic nature and accidentally causes El Primero to fly into the bull pen. El Primero angrily tries to attack Ferdinand with two barbed sticks (knowns as banderillas) and in the process, strikes Ferdinand in the shoulder, who almost retaliates against the matador, but sees a carnation underneath his hoof and sees that he's being the fighter he was unwilling to be and lets El Primero live. Regardless, El Primero tries to slay him to finish the fight, but upon seeing Ferdinand resigning himself to it and the crowd, moved by his gentle nature, wanting him to live, he refuses to kill him and leaves with dignity. Ferdinand is reunited with Nina, who embraces him and everyone throws carnations to the ring to praise the bull. The other bulls finally arrive too late to save Ferdinand, but instead witness Ferdinand making history as the first bull to ever make it out of a bullfight alive by being himself.
In the end, Ferdinand returns home with Nina, Juan, Paco and Moreno allows his fellow bulls, the hedgehogs, the Bunny and Lupe move into the farm with him. The film ends with Ferdinand, Lupe, and their bull friends watching the sunset over Ronda from a field of flowers.
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