Walt Disney's 1938 Take on Ferdinand, and more . . .

I still have Ferdinand on the brain, and am getting to work on Ferdinand II, which is going to be for solo euphonium. It will "illustrate" Ferdinand's encounter with the bee, his discovery by the men with funny hats, his cart trip to Madrid, the parade and entrance into the ring, and his return to his cork tree.

I appreciate that the Disney animators kept the integrity of the cork tree. This is the drawing I made for the cover of my Ferdinand piece for solo cello or solo viola, which is available on this page of the IMSLP. For most of my life this is the way I thought that this was how we got corks for wine bottles. Seriously.

I also learned here that the book was banned by Franco and by Hitler (which comes as no surprise), and that Munro Leaf wrote the story so his friend Robert Lawson would have something fun to illustrate (also no surprise).