Animal Farm Review – Andy Serkis’ Orwell adaptation slays classic farm satire with sugar | film

gGeorge Orwell’s Animal Farm is not a sacred text. There’s no rule that it can’t be changed in an adaptation, especially if you want to, say, add some historical perspective from the world that came into existence after the book was published in 1945. But this inexcusably saccharine animation from screenwriter Nicholas Stoller and director Andy Serkis, as well as having a very cheap digital look, betrays Orwell by vilifying and distorting its classic allegory of Stalinism and failed revolution with a stupid happy ending. Disney style.

The pivotal moment in which the humans and pigs appear alike does not occur at the end, but rather at a one-hour point in the 94-minute film, suggesting that a new third act is in the offing. I was initially intrigued, and wondered if there would be a witty denouement in which the farm wall is torn down. But no. The evil pig Napoleon (voiced by Seth Rogen with several A.S Yuk yuk yuk) eliminates his rival Snowball (Laverne Cox), then gobbles up the corrupt human money of a newly invented agribusiness corporate character from the human world called Pilkington (Glenn Close) and heads out to address his followers with the help of a giant Big Brother-style screen.

Eventually, Napoleon gets his naughty comeuppance from a group of rebellious little animals, the farm catches fire, and the rebels gather safely on the banks of a large area of ​​water that was never clear before, seriously contemplate the mistakes they have made, and acknowledge that they should not have placed their ill-advised trust in a leader like Napoleon… “or even Snowball for that matter.” (There seems to be something wrong with Snowball, too, but it’s not clear what it is. No hint of Trotskyism here.) What’s the point of making a remake of Animal Farm if you’re going to subtract anger, satire, emotion, and meaning?