George Orwell’s 1945 novella Animal Farm remains obligatory reading at many schools, but teachers will be hoping their students don’t base their essay responses on a new animated interpretation instead of the book.
Written by Nicholas Stoller and directed by Andy Serkis, the new Animal Farm movie turns the cautionary tale into a fantasy comedy adventure with the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi and Glenn Close.
Animal Farm and cinema have already have a controversial history. A landmark 1954 movie was Britain’s first commercial animated feature. It was covertly funded by the CIA as Cold War propaganda (complete with an altered ending) and flopped at the box office, but was generally praised for the quality of the animation, with The Guardian reportedly deeming it to be “Disney turned serious”.
Then came Hallmark’s 1999 live-action Animal Farm with animatronic animals created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Some deemed it too dark for kids, but again the ending was changed to make it more optimistic.
The new interpretation has a more modern look with 3D animation, but it’s set to be even more controversial. If the first movie was Disney turned serious, this is just plain Disney, packed with one liners. But what’s most angering people is the change in the story.
“They don’t even need that windmill anymore; just hook up a generator to George Orwell’s grave and he’d power the whole farm,” one person suggests in the comments on the trailer on YouTube. “The book is like 100 pages, guys. Was it that hard to read,” someone else writes.
One person is even more cutting: “This is like if Maus had a scene where some mouse in a gas chamber, looking sheepish at the camera: ‘Oops, I think I farted!’ Right after he and his friends get gassed,”
I have to agree that the jokes feel off, almost making it seem a parody (next we’ll have a version of Watership Down reenacted by the Minions, one person suggests).
But to be fair to the filmmakers, a lot of the people criticising the trailer also seem to have a dumbed-down understanding of what Animal Farm is about. Many are saying the movie is a direct inversion of George Orwell’s intention because it critiques capitalism rather than communism, but that’s a simplified interpretation.
Animal Farm was inspired by Stalin’s Russia, but its was abouut how any revolution can be corrupted by the desire for power, resulting in a regime as bad as the one it overthrew. That applies to any form of totalitarianism.
Orwell was writing at a particular time after World War 2 in which Soviet communism was seen as a threat in the West. The world today is different. State-promoted communism barely exists but in name stage apart from in name, but the risk of authoritarianism is as strong as ever. It might make sense for the movie to adapt the story to connect with a scenario closer to home.
The new Animal Farm will be released in the US on 1 May 2026 – International Workers’ Day.
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