Rex (film)

Rex is a 2023 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Bravestars Global Publishing and distributed by BrainSpyro Productions. Based on Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson's children's book "Story of Rex", the film was directed by Carlos Saldanha from a screenplay by Robert L. Baird, Tim Federle and Brad Copeland, and features the voice of John Cena as the titular role, alongside Kate McKinnon, Anthony Anderson, Peyton Manning, Gina Rodriguez, Miguel Angel Silvestre and David Tennant. The story, written by Ron Burch, David Kidd and Don Rhymer, follows a gentle cow named Rex who refuses to participate in cow fighting but is forced back into the arena where he faces the world's greatest cow fighter.
== Plot ==
In Spain, a ranch owned by Professor Alice (Leah Ostry) that trains farm animals for animal fighting called House of the Barn harbours a calf named Rex (Jack Gore). He is ridiculed by his fellow piglet, belted galloway calf and kid Sasquatch (Nile Diaz), Barney (Jet Jurgensmeyer) and Komodo (Colin H. Murphy) for being non-confrontational and his tendency to smell and protect flowers. A saddened Rex runs away from House of the Barn after his father Ferdinand (Jeremy Sisto) does not return from the bull fight he was picked for and a flower he was fond of was flattened by Sasquatch after his own father was defeated by Ferdinand. He eventually winds up at a cowboy's farm in Seville and is adopted by the owners William (Thomas Albritton) and Elenice (Belita Moreno), their duck Pablo (Shannon Lynch), and his both young friends Davi (Jason Sargeant) and Eni (Abigail Gordon) with whom he shares a bond, much to Pablo's jealousy.
When Rex (John Cena) eventually grows up into an enormous cow, he still retains his non-violent, flower-loving nature. Due to his size, he is left alone with William, Elenice, Davi (Rafael Saldanha), Eni (Tori Kelly) and Pablo go to City of Spain for an annual city of spains. Rex decides to go anyway, resulting in him getting stung by a frog and unintentionally causing chaos around town and is taken away back to House of the Barn, much to his and the family's sadness.
Once back there, he finds that Komodo (Anthony Anderson), Barney (Peyton Manning) and Sasquatch (Bobby Cannavale) have also grown up and have been joined by Scottish cattle named Moose (David Tennant) and a silent but intimidating bull named Tyrone (Tim Nordquist). Rex is still disrespected by the 3 grown up farm animals he knew when they were young animals, but manages to befriend a crazy mare named Unicorn (Kate McKinnon) who wants to be his coach in cow fighting despite his lack of interest, three hedgehogs named Mary (Gina Rodriguez), Mel (Daveed Diggs) and Jack (Gabriel Iglesias) who frequently invade House of the Barn to steal food and used to have turkey named Phil, but they claim he is dead. and three animals (Flula Borg, Sally Phillips and Cameron Diaz), who like dancing and tease Rex.
One day, a legendary but egotistical bullfighter named Sportacus (Miguel Angel Silvestre) arrives at House of the Barn to choose the biggest, strongest and most aggressive cow to fight against before he retires. After the farm animals fail to impress him on their first try, Barney is taken to a nearby slaughterhouse and the other animals tell Rex that it will eventually be their fate if they are not chosen for a cow fight. Although Rex manages to earn the respect of the other animals, except Sasquatch, after a dance-off with the three animals, they still hold on to the belief that fighting is the only way for them to live. Rex manages to convice Unicorn to come back with him to Davi and Eni's farm and the hedgehogs help them escape, but when Rex is close to freedom, he sees his father's picture on a wall with his horns mounted, along with dozens of other horns, making him realize that every cow who is chosen to fight gets slain by the matador.