Review by Jon Donnis
There was always going to be controversy around a new adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The 1945 novella is one of the most famous political allegories ever written, a savage attack on authoritarianism (Stalinism) wrapped inside a deceptively simple story about rebellious farm animals. Trying to modernise it was already risky. Turning it into a family friendly animated comedy drama with a coming of age storyline was asking for trouble.
Andy Serkis’ version certainly looks polished enough on the surface. The animation is decent throughout, colourful and energetic without ever feeling particularly groundbreaking. It has the sort of glossy streaming era style that feels designed to keep younger viewers engaged, even during the more dialogue heavy moments. The voice cast also does a solid job with what they are given. Seth Rogen brings a smug arrogance to Napoleon that works surprisingly well, while Kieran Culkin’s slippery Squealer is probably the closest the film gets to capturing the manipulative spirit of Orwell’s original work. Kathleen Turner gives Benjamin some much needed gravitas, and Woody Harrelson’s Boxer has genuine warmth.
The biggest change comes through Lucky, the newly created piglet protagonist voiced by Gaten Matarazzo. The film positions him as the audience surrogate, caught between Snowball’s idealism and Napoleon’s corruption. It is a very obvious attempt to reshape Animal Farm into something more accessible for modern younger audiences, complete with emotional arcs, friendships, romance subplots, and a more hopeful ending. Whether that sounds appealing probably depends entirely on how attached you are to Orwell’s original vision.
That is where the film completely falls apart.
Serkis and writer Nicholas Stoller take Orwell’s razor sharp political allegory and sand down nearly every uncomfortable edge. The original story was bleak, cynical, and deliberately uncompromising in its condemnation of totalitarian ideology. This adaptation instead shifts focus toward generic corporate greed and modern billionaire corruption, replacing Orwell’s specific warnings about Communism with a far broader and far safer message about wealthy corporations and consumerism. Frieda Pilkington becomes the central villain looming over the story, while Napoleon’s descent into tyranny feels secondary by comparison.
The result is a film that often feels embarrassed by the source material it is adapting.
There is a strange sense throughout that the filmmakers wanted the cultural recognition of Animal Farm without actually wanting to engage with what Orwell wrote. The darker political themes are softened, the satire becomes muddled, and the story is constantly interrupted by sentimental moments designed to make the audience feel hopeful. Orwell never intended Animal Farm to be uplifting. That discomfort was the entire point.
The film also bends over backwards trying to modernise itself for contemporary audiences. In doing so, it loses the identity that made the novella endure for generations in the first place. Changing the foundations of such an iconic story in order to align with modern political tastes feels deeply misguided. Orwell’s novella was itself a direct criticism of far left ideology and authoritarian collectivism, yet this adaptation awkwardly sidesteps that history almost entirely. Instead of challenging audiences, it plays things as safely as possible.
Even structurally, the film struggles. The pacing is uneven, jumping awkwardly between comedy, political drama, emotional speeches, and disaster movie spectacle. The climax involving the collapsing dam and water tower feels more like something from a generic animated adventure than the tragic inevitability Orwell crafted. By the final scenes, with Lucky staring hopefully toward the stars, the film barely resembles Animal Farm at all.
There are occasional glimpses of what could have been. Benjamin’s scenes retain some of the bitterness and cynicism that the story desperately needs, and the gradual rewriting of the farm’s laws remains effective because it is one of the few ideas lifted directly from Orwell that still carries real power. But these moments are drowned beneath the film’s relentless need to soften every hard edge.
The only way to even try to enjoy Animal Farm is to pretend you have never heard of George Orwell or the original book. Viewed entirely on its own terms, it is a mediocre animated film with decent visuals and a talented cast. Viewed as an adaptation of one of the most important political novels ever written, it becomes something far more frustrating.
Why anyone thought this was a good idea is beyond me. It feels less like an adaptation and more like an attempt to reshape Orwell’s work into something ideologically safer and easier to market to modern audiences. In the process, it strips away nearly everything that made Animal Farm worth adapting in the first place.
A terrible film, barely worth a 2 out of 10.
Out on Digital now - https://apple.co/4uQc4X3
