It’s so easy to see how this could have been emotionally richer that it feels like a let-down when it merely seems interested in goofy slapstick. Loosely inspired by the classic picture book, it follows a gentle, flower-loving bull named Ferdinand (John Cena) whose happy life with a young girl is turned upside-down when he’s returned to the farm where he grew up, raised for the bullfights of Madrid. Director Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age) and company throw in a handful of lively supporting characters, including a goat (Kate McKinnon) and a trio of hedgehogs, filling the story with plenty of chases, escapes, rescues and other high-energy action. It’s all good for a few laughs, but there’s not much more to it than that, even though Ferdinand’s rivalry with another, more aggressive bull (Bobby Canavale) seems like the beginning of a kid-friendly exploration of toxic mas-cow-linity. Ultimately, Ferdinand himself is a blandly nice protagonist, albeit one who sticks admirably to his pacifist principles, in a story that shoves aside much of its deeper meaning to go for the Looney Tunes gusto. By Scott Renshaw