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Animal Farm, the animated, kid-friendly adaptation of George Orwell’s classic 1945 novella, is now out in theaters and I saw it so you don’t have to.
You will recall that the fable centers on animals who revolt against their farmer master, take over the farm, set out to fashion a collectivist utopia in which “All animals are equal,” and ultimately succumb to the same fate to which all collectivist endeavors lead: all wealth concentrated in the hands of a few while the rest starve and chafe under an abuse of authoritarian power.
But while the novella may have universal themes about power, totalitarianism, and hypocrisy, Orwell’s specific target was the Stalinist regime in Russia. A socialist himself, Orwell nevertheless recognized and spoke out against the horrors of totalitarianism.
This animated version was directed by actor Andy Serkis – best-known for his role as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy – who dreamed of giving the tale an updated spin for a new generation. He insists that his take is politically fair and balanced: “We aimed to tell this story examining contemporary themes and references without being in any way partisan,” he told journalists. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely, no matter who is in charge.”
This is pure misdirection. Did anyone think a mainstream Hollywood film, which this is, would miss an opportunity to snipe at Trump and capitalism? Andy Serkis gave away the game when he showed up on the red carpet at the film’s premiere sporting a red MAGA cap whose slogan was changed to read, “Make Animal Farm Fiction Again” – clearly signaling that he believes we are currently living under an authoritarian regime led by capitalist icon Donald Trump.
And he introduces a character not in the original story: the ruthlessly greedy billionaire Freida Pilkington (voiced by Glenn “Fatal Attraction” Close) who roars around in a vehicle clearly resembling a Cybertruck – in other words, she is a stand-in for the mega-capitalist the Left loves to hate, Elon Musk.
Pilkington wants the animals’ farm, so she manipulates the pig leader Napoleon (who represented Stalin in the novella), whose own greed makes him an easy mark. But in Orwell’s version, the ruthless lust for power is the key danger. Greed is not the issue – it is a consequence of unchecked power, yes, but not a central theme, although under collectivist regimes, those in power always live like kings. Serkis, USA Today notes, instead “gravitated toward themes of capitalism, wealth and overconsumption.”
Then there is the hopeful ending in which the animals still believe in the power of collective action for a better future, which runs against the grain of Orwell’s chilling final line about the animals having essentially become indistinguishable from corrupt humans. USA Today sees the movie’s ending as giving viewers “closure,” but in fact it dulls the impact of Orwell’s warning and leaves us feeling not even entertained, much less inspired. It doesn’t help that the incongruous pratfalls and fart jokes simply don’t work.
Animal Farm currently has a dismal 60% audience rating on the review site Rotten Tomatoes, and a catastrophic critic rating of 25%. (By contrast, the kids’ animated comedy Hoppers, also in theaters now, scored a Rotten Tomatoes critic rating of 94% and an audience rating of 93%.) This puts it in the same trash bin with Showgirls (1995) and the Citizen Kane of terrible movies, The Room (2003), both of which have a 24% critic rating. At least those films, however, are firmly in the so-bad-they’re-actually-entertaining category. The same cannot be said of Animal Farm, which raked in a pathetic $3.3 million in its opening weekend (on a $30+ million budget) despite a big-name cast featuring Seth Rogan, Glenn Close, and Woody Harrelson.
Movie critic Peter Travers panned Animal Farm as “a cutsey, cardboard kiddie cartoon of staggering ineptitude” and “an endurance test for audiences of all ages.” I can vouch for that last part, as I took my 3 oldest girls (ranging in age from 10 to 16) to see it and we were all bored from start to finish. I began checking my watch after just 10 minutes.
Writing for the Washington Examiner, David Harsanyi blasted the film as “a dumbed-down, generic Disney-like romp with virtually nothing to do with the book.” The Telegraph complained that instead of critiquing totalitarian Soviet Russia, “the film shifts its focus towards the dangers of capitalism and corporate corruption.” Arash Nahandian at Gazettely wrote that “the specific ghost of Joseph Stalin has been politely exorcised from this farm.” Instead, the film gives us “a parable about the pathologies of late-stage capitalism.”
The baffling thing is that the film is distributed by the pro-Christian, pro-capitalist Angel Studios. If this adaptation were faithful to Orwell’s original vision, Angel’s connection would be understandable. But why would Angel want a clunky, anti-capitalist dud in its repertoire? One social media user put forward this plausible theory: “What Angel gets out of distributing this terrible movie with an all-star cast is that it will break a taboo among mainstream Hollywood figures against working on Angel-produced projects.” If so, this would be a betrayal of Angel’s loyal, Hollywood-despising core audience, and a decision that will likely backfire.
We shall see. In any case, this unfunny, heavy-handed waste is a missed opportunity to bring George Orwell’s still-valid cautionary tale to life for a younger audience that desperately needs educating about the danger of collectivist fantasies.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.
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