In 1938 change was in the wind. Warner were becoming a serious threat to Disney; their manic, sharp-edged stye contrasting with Disney's stately craftsmanship. At the same time, the animated feature film was just one year old, by most reckoning. It's disconcerting then, that by contrast with Warner's rather scattershot style, 'Ferdinand the Bull' seems so polished and perfected: as if the artist had been doing this for years. Which, of course, he had. Disney had been directing or producing shorts for about 18 years by now.

All the same, 'Ferdinand' is disoncertingly accomplished in its production and appearance. If I had never seen this, and you told me it was made in 1950 rather than 1938, I could quite easily believe you. In fact, the Warner films of the same vintage have a more dated look.

The story is pretty straightforward. Ferdinand is not an aggressive bull, unlike his testosterone-filled pasture buddies who spend most of their time smashing their heads together. In fact there's nothing he'd rather do than sit under his favourite tree and smell the flowers. Unfortunately he happens to sit down on a bumblebee the day some matadors from the bullring turn up, and while all the other bulls are butting heads to try to impress them, Ferdinand's pain-filled rampage convinces them that he's the right guy. Which of course he isn't. But he gets taken to the bullring anyway.

I won't give away any more of the plot, except for this comment.

If you had to specify a difference between Warner and Disney at this point, it was that Warner had to be wacky, zany, and finish with a gag. 'Ferdinand' has a gentle, sweet, gag-less ending which would have been unthinkable by Warner standards, but was trademark Disney. This may not have been the wave of the future, but ironically, today it almost seems refreshing.

This is a classic short, and completely deserves its Oscar.

PS: favourite moment - cow's facial reaction to narrator saying 'after all she was a cow'.