Animal Farm

1954
Approved
1h 12m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong as the victors create a new tyranny among themselves.

Play trailer2:11

1 Video

99 Photos

Adult Animation Hand-Drawn Animation Political Drama Animation Drama

A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong when the victors create a new tyranny among themselves.A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong when the victors create a new tyranny among themselves.A successful farmyard revolution by the resident animals vs. the farmer goes horribly wrong when the victors create a new tyranny among themselves.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

20K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 nomination total

More like this

7.6

7.7

7.1

7.7

7.0

6.9

6.2

7.2

6.5

5.8

Hill 24 Doesn't Answer

7.7

Fantastic Planet

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
Many parents were alarmed at the bleakness of the film, having taken their children thinking it was a film along the lines of a Walt Disney cartoon.

Goofs
When Old Jones grabs the dynamite out of the box, he has three sticks in each hand, but when he puts his hands together a seventh stick appears from nowhere. Then, when he lights the fuse, there are twelve sticks in the pile.

Quotes
[The laws of Animal Farm are being read]
Snowball: No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall sleep in a bed. Four legs good, two legs bad.
[The chickens are very annoyed at this rule]
Squealer: Wings count as legs.
[The chickens realize that Squealer is right]
Group of sheep: Four legs good, two legs bad. Four legs good, two legs bad.
Snowball: [continuing the reading of the laws] No animal shall kill another animal. All animals are equal.

Alternate versions
In the Extended Edition (in the USA coming in October 2024), the only scene (after Squealer says "Long live Napoleon!" two times) shows all the animals and new animals cheering (cows, sheep, horses, pink pigs, llamas, chickens, peacocks, and goats) for Squealer before Benjamin runs away from Squealer and the barking dogs.

Connections
Featured in Pieces of Silver (1989)

User reviews110

Review

Featured review

7/10

Nice adaption of a seminal fable

George Orwell's novel 'Animal Farm' was a fable that worked as a bang-on critique of the Russian revolution and Stalinism. In it a group of mistreated farmyard animals rise up against their owner and overthrow him. They then briefly form a Utopian society that quickly deteriorates into something very similar to the old system that was in place before.

Different animals represent different people. The wise old pig Old Major represents Karl Marx and the beginning of communist teachings; Farmer Jones is Czar Nicholas II and represents the old regime; Napoleon and Snowball the pigs are respectively the ruthless Joseph Stalin and idealistic Leon Trotsky; the pack of dogs are the secret police and violent state enforcement; Boxer represents the hard working peasants; Benjamin, the wise but powerless individual; the sheep the unthinking masses. While Manor Farm itself is Russia and Animal Farm the Soviet Union.

The format of the fable works extremely well in illustrating the story of the formation of the USSR. This cartoon version of it is in the main a pretty impressive adaption. While the ending goes against the Dystopian one favoured by Orwell, it's not really surprising that it does this, although it's unfortunate. But it doesn't really damage the film very much as it's central idea remains intact. The animation itself is good enough, and even though there is a lot of narration I didn't consider this to be a problem. I thought that all things considered this was a good stab at an iconic bit of literature.