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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.

Animal Farm, based on a novel by George Orwell, is ostensibly about a group of animals who rebel against the drunken farmer who owns them, and abuses them. They begin running the farm themselves. Their revolution is corrupted into tyranny which eventually becomes worse than the human farmer's regime.

A not-so-veiled criticism of totalitarianism under Stalin, many events portrayed in the DVD correspond to real events that took place in the Soviet Union. However, the DVD may be understood as a critique of totalitarianism, no matter where or when it appears.

Maurice Denham, the Mel Blanc of England, performed the voices of all the animals in the film. It is worth seeing the DVD for that alone.

Fed up with the treatment from farmer Jones, the animals of Manor Farm gather in a meeting to listen to Old Major tell them of his hopes for a socialist revolution to improve their lives. Sadly, mid-song, Old Major dies of a heart attack but by then his message had been passed on. The next morning Jones is met with resistance and driven off his own land and, when he returns with friends to take it back, a great battle ensues that the animals win. Thus begins the new, fairer farm where all animals are equal and everyone shares the work as well as having a share of the profits. However this equality soon starts to have exceptions as leaders rise up from within the ranks.

There is no doubting the value of the story or the intelligence of the source material and the decision of the film to stick closely to Orwell's book is where its strength comes from. I love the story and always have, it is well written, sharply judgemental and a cautionary tale that is rightly used heavily in schools. The socialist system rises up but soon some want more rights than others and soon the leaders of the rebellion start emulating the habits of Jones and the, once proud standards are gradually watered down. The broad characters are well written and, although they don't have any depth, they fulfil the requirements of the story telling.

The animation looks dated but given that it is now over 50 years old this is no real surprise, nor a problem. No, the problem with the film is the delivery. Heath is the narrator while Denham does the voices of all the animals; now this sounds like Denham will be carrying the majority of the film but in reality he has little to do because the film is mostly delivered in narration. This is all well and good but it does make the film feel like it is more an audio book with pictures rather than a film. As a result there isn't the emotional impact that there should have been and, although you feel sorry for the characters it is more a general feeling rather than a genuine care for the "people".

Many reviewers have commented on the ending and they are right to do so because if even an ending felt tacked on to produce a "happy" conclusion then it was this one. I understand that no producer wants to try and sell a negative product but the end of the book was fine as it was – it made a firm point and left a memorable impression whereas this one just feels wrong. Overall though it is a good film that is worth seeing due to the source material but the narrative approach lessens its value as a film and made me think that I should have just reread the book.

I read George Orwells classic about 20yrs ago but was quite frankly devastated by it. For that reason I had no interest in watching any film adaptation but recently gave in.

Animal Farm is as relevant today as the day it was written and perhaps for that reason it is very difficult viewing.

For those unaware the entire story is an allegory for the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.

It tells the story of the overworked animals on a farm who turn on their human master and make it their own only to watch the same thing happen again when one of the pigs becomes the very thing they had revolted against.

The animation style is that of the early Disney cartoons, it's over the top wacky and charming. The trouble is even though the movie is heavily comical and jovial it has several very alarming scenes and a very unnerving under current throughout.

Animal Farm is great viewing and devastatingly relevant across the world,if you're reading this then you are almost certainly experiencing it whether an overworked animal or maybe even a pig.

I rate Animal Farm a tad low perhaps, not because of the quality of content but purely because it's so hard hitting and not in a good way.

The Good:

Charming animation style

In places very sweet

Extremely well written and narrated

Powerful social commentary

The Bad:

Very difficult viewing

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The animators went out of their way to make every humans nose look ridiculous

Mankind can make a movie to reflect society and how downtrodden most are, but still won't acknowledge it enough to act

I don't understand why critics in recent years have never warmed to "Animal Farm". They believe it's "disappointingly flat" (Leslie Halliwell) or "an illustrated study aid" (Time Out). I remember when I first saw this film a quarter of a century ago. I found the betrayal of Boxer, the horse, horrifying. The description, "an intellectual film, not an emotional one" (Time Out), cannot be reconciled with my own recollections. Are British critics simply holding a British film of a British novel up to standards they would not apply to a non-British production? The film already contains evidence of a Disney influence, from adorable ducklings to a musical score with echoes of Prokofieff's "Peter and the Wolf", and an expiating ending that's not in the book. Any more of that sort of thing and critics would have accused the film of losing all of the book's bite.

George Orwell wrote a fable about revolution betrayed, and laced it liberally with references to the Russian Revolution. Much of this dimension is still visible in the film. A wise pig, Old Major, proclaims the revolution before dying. Old Major is sort of a Marx figure, although, to me, he seems to be drawn to look like Churchill. Proclamation made, nothing happens. However Farmer Jones is drunk and the animals don't get their feed. The Tsar's mismanagement produced his revolution as well. Russian parallels continue. Counter-revolutionary farmers (capitalist states) attack Animal Farm but fail. One pig, Snowball (Trotsky), tries to spread revolution to other farms (world revolution), but is murdered by his associate, Napoleon (Stalin), who prefers to consolidate his power at home. The film also has Five Year Plans, industrialization programmes, forcible collectivization, showtrials with quick executions afterwards, and historical revisionism.

But I saw this film perhaps three times long before I understood anything much about the political parallels. I liked it as much then if not more so. Knowledge of that side does tend to turn the film into an intellectual experience, but viewers who have no prior exposure to the historical facts receive the raw emotional jolt which more politically astute critics maintain the film lacks.

Regardless of whether you know a lot about Russia and her Revolution, or nothing at all, Britain's first animated feature is a film with a strong story which adults and mature kids should find absorbing, maybe even "devastating", as The New York Times once claimed back in the days when Stalin was still lying warm in his grave, if not in anyone's heart.

As for a rating on "Animal Farm", the sheep say, "Four stars good, two stars b-a-a-a-d!"

Why it is that people call this rubbish and dumb, the world has yet to know. I thought it was one of the greatest (if not the darkest) animated film I've seen in my days. The movie stays true to the book written by George Orwell, except for the song and the ending, which I will not spoil for you.

For Britain's first animated feature, it seems to have made quite a success, well, almost. It seems that the CIA has taken over here, and well, I shouldn't go into detail. All I can say is this, a wonderful, dark, mature film. A word of warning though, this film is pretty dark and has some scenes of blood the kids might find scary. Overall, a good film.

*watches grimly as 0 to 1000 find this comment useful*

Not to degrade Animal Farm by calling it a cartoon, I am amazed that it was even made into an animated film back in 1954. Even though the story is a popular book in most junior high schools, it is a tough story to take, especially the ending. In this version, the ending is given a re-make. Having more of a positive ending with hope, Animal Farm doesn't end as powerful as it does in its original written version. Still, it is one of very few cartoons that address important issues and leaves its audience with a number of powerful images.

Dealing with dictatorship, communist theory, military warlords, the democratic process and political theories, Animal Farm throws so much at the viewer / reader that it is still a highly acclaimed story. Whether it is suitable for a young audience, that is up to the individual viewer to decide.

This animated movie is based on George Orwell's written book classic "Animal Farm".

A short synopsis of the story: A farm owned by an unfriendly and aggressive farmer Mr. Jones. The oldest farm animal, a boar named Major who's basically on his deathbed, initiates an animal revolution and takes over the farm. The reason why the revolution was made is to stop mass labor and production for humans and build a strong community accepting all kinds of animals making it a safe and peaceful circle. Throughout the story, it was revealed that not all animals on the farm had the same intentions of building a safe community; rather , it was something far more miscellaneous and destructive for their farm's future.

This movie was directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas. It premiered in New York at the chic Paris theater, in December 1954.

This movie is one hour and twelve minutes long and covers pretty much everything that has happened in Orwell's novel. Though there were some changes made in the movie which are pretty noticeable if you have read the original workpiece. For example, there were a few characters missing from the movie. Mare named Clover who was Boxer's companion, Mollie a white mare who escaped the farm embracing life with humans, and Mr. Jones' wife Mrs. Jones who played a really minor role at the start of the novel. Even though these three characters weren't mentioned or shown throughout the movie it didn't change the actual pace of the story. Because of the three missing characters from the story the movie was shorter.

In my opinion, this movie is a pretty good adaptation of Orwell's novel if you're not way too keen on reading books.

Storyline-wise, it was almost the same though some parts were overly violent. Showing lots of alcohol abuse and aggressive behavior, as well as animal cruelty. Can't forget to mention how obnoxiously loud and scary it was sometimes. This could make this movie not suitable for kids under the age of ten or thirteen since it could lead to distress.

The quality of this movie is surprisingly good for being sixty-eight years old. The animation is smooth and well-made. The art style is really pleasant and the character design was very fitting to the actual character description in the novel. The voice actor for the movie narrator was Gordon Heath from the US. He did a very good job, his speech was clear and sound, and easily understandable. The music was written by Mátyás Seiber, a British composer born in

Hungary. The songs and sound effects were well-fitting for all of the scenes in the movie. The animal sound effects were especially great and sounded quite real.

Overall this movie was well made and done well as an adaptation using the actual lines from the novel as references. This could be a definite lifesaver for those who don't enjoy reading books or if you are having a hard time imagining what the characters and the scene look like. Anyhow it could be more suitable for adults or an older audience than the novel itself.

"Animal Farm" is a story about how the animals in Manor Farm revolt against Mr. Jones- their owner. The animals have had enough of him and decided that they didn't want to serve humans anymore. The pigs of the farm leads the others barnyards animals a revolt against Mr. Jones. Together, all the animals fight against humans, in hopes for a better future. However, an unexpected tyranny occurs, led by one of their own kind.

First of, this is NOT a children's movie. It is very dark and touches upon some sticky topics. To be honest, this movie freaked me out. Well, the book did. Thinking about it, the movie felt very lacking for me. I don't think I would have understood the movie if I hadn't read the book first. If you really want to watch this film, I suggest maybe reading the book first.

I must say though, the movie was a very good summary of all the important parts in the book. However, I found that I missed the little details. I had wanted to see some characters, but was disappointed to see that they weren't included in the movie. For me, there felt to be no character/animal development. How sad. I also did not like the ending. Creative license or not, I still believe that they should have stuck to the book's original ending. The movie would have made more impact that way.

Viewed on: July 28, 2011

for a viewer from East Europe, it is not exactly only a good adaptation. it is not just a cartoon. but support for memories. and a warning. the book of George Orwell is always a must re-read. but the movie - piece from the Cold War is little more important than only animation film. convincing, in clothes of children movie, it represents in large measure a bitter parable who has new nuances, special force, more perspectives about the dark frame of dictatorship. in its case, the message is more important than artistic virtues. because it remains a powerful warning. not a decent/admirable adaptation, not an old film. but an useful tool for discover and understand the past and, maybe, for transform the future as better script.

A fairy tale or a nightmare? It all began with a dream by Major, a Middle White boar, of equality, and freedom from oppression. Maybe not in our life comrade, but eventually.

The dream brings a song. Intolerable conditions lead to revolution. As time passes things change; not exactly as planned.

There are two striking parts to this tale that stand out. First when Boxer is sent to the hospital and Benjamin reads the side of the van "Horse Slaughterer." Secondly, there was a party in the farmhouse as the pigs were playing cards with the men, and two aces of spades showed up.

At the end of the book, an argument ensues between pigs and men working together. Then the creatures outside looked in as they "...looked from pig to man and man to pig, and from pig to man again drew a realization..."

In the movie, the pigs stand alone; then the world is "dissent-pig-planted" by the rest of the animals. Not an ending.

It is suggested that the end of the movie was changed by the CIA who obtained the rights to "Animal Farm." We notice pigs without people.

Gordon Heath is the narrator in this 1954 presentation of Orwell's "Animal Farm." Maurice Denham was the voice of all the animals.

Between the narration are long wordless views that stretch the film out to two or three times what it normally is with just the narration.

Manor Farm, run by the drunken Mr. Jones, has fallen on hard time. The animals suffer under his brutality. The senior boar named Old Major ferments a revolution among the animals proclaiming that "All Animals are Equal". Old Major dies soon after but the revolution is unstoppable. They drive out Mr. Jones and later his drinking buddies. The pigs lead the revolution and proclaim the Seven Commandments of Animalism. The leader Napoleon takes an interest in the abandoned farmhouse and a litter of puppies left orphan by the revolt. Soon Napoleon drives out his rival Snowball and takes dictatorial powers with the puppies which he raised into vicious dogs. The Commandments are slowly changed and Napoleon starts selling to local trader Mr. Whymper. The last change is that "All Animals are Equal but Some Animals are More Equal Than Others".

The animation style is Disneyesque. The source material is George Orwell. The secret financial backing does alter the material but it is still compelling. The changes are political. As a movie, it is engaging. As propaganda, it is influencing.

George Orwell's novel ANIMAL FARM has long been a favourite of mine, ever since I was forced to read it for English class in school. I admired its depth and simplicity, two things that don't necessarily combine very often. This 1954 animated film came out soon after the novel was released, and it has its moments but is a bit of a disappointment if you've read the book.

The animation is probably the best thing about it; ANIMAL FARM has a distinct look to it and the animals are all well drawn and complement each other nicely. I admire the viciousness of the production; the darkness of the book is well retained here with lots of gory mayhem. It's also an ultimately depressing production, which is as it should be. One thing I didn't like was the ponderous narration, constantly telling us what to think and feel; films which show instead of tell are always better.

The main problem with ANIMAL FARM is that the CIA co-financed the production and, unfortunately, interfered with the material. Thus the portrayal of Snowball is different to in the book; he's less sympathetic here. Also, for whatever reason, that ending is just wrong. It's not enough to spoil the movie, but it's no classic because of these changes.

I think the 1999 version was better myself, but this version is well worth watching. Of course the theme of the movie is the same as the book by George Orwell, a political message against communism. Because of this it has a rather brutal theme and I would not recommend this for small children.

My copy was made by Digiview and sold for $1.00 at WalMart. Well worth the buck.

In the movie a drunken tyrant farmer loses control of his farm when the animals revolt and take over. A benevolent pig, Major, leads the revolt and eventually pigs become the ruling class. The revolution is a success at first. Oppressed animals on other farms have their own revolutions too. As time passes corrupt, evil, pigs take over and the other animals end up more oppressed than ever.

I saw this film in my senior Social studies class. It was intended to create a paradigm of our history and how politics can turn ugly.

It did the job very well. If nothing else can effectively demonstrate the failures of our past political systems, it is this film. The parallels drawn between past governments is brutally honest, and the outright indication of the evils of communism and such. This is not so much a movie for family or children; it is best to be utilized as an educational tool. I think it would be a critical work in any social studies program. I also think it's unusual that when the film was released, it got an x-rating for the mature subject matter. Better you learn this kind of thing sooner, and not contribute to repeating the mistakes of the past.

I first saw this in ninth grade English after we read the novel. We all saw that things were changed, but at the time my classmates, teacher, and I assumed it was just Hollywood trying to tack on a "Happy Ending." A few years later I'm in college doing research for a paper on Orwell and I happen to stumble upon articles from the New York Times and other places talking about how it was the CIA who bought the rights from Orwell widow and changed it around to make better propaganda. Just look at the trivia section! The CIA also funded a BBC production of 1984 where they deliberately omitted all of Orwell's criticisms of capitalism and changed the ending in a similar fashion to what they changed in Animal Farm. I know this sounds like tin foil hat stuff, but it's documented. So unless you're interested in studying cold war propaganda, stay away from this movie, and if you haven't already go read Animal Farm and 1984. It's available in every library so you don't even have to pay for it.

"Animal Farm" doesn't seem like a candidate for animation, but after seeing the lackluster live-action feature last year, this animated British film looks better and better each time I view it.

Oh, I've heard the complaints about it not being wholly faithful to the source material. I'm going to apply the same defense here that I gave to "Gulliver's Travels": the film is the last place to look for accuracy. A wholly faithful adaptation would have no doubt turned everyone off, but what they have left behind is fascinating: despite an upbeat ending, the flavor of the novel remains intact. How many films can you say that about? The stinging satire is there, the political parallels are there, but a certain entertainment value is there that wasn't in the novel.

The ultimate message of the film leaves the viewer somewhat sad, according to my experience. But that's a good thing, I think. The film was animated by the British animator John Halas, whose short subject "The Christmas Visitor" is widely available on public domain but hardly seen. He retains much of the same style as he did in his earlier short and makes a strong and honorable film.

The box and ads say "Not for children." I think enlightened children will enjoy this film on one level and adults will enjoy it on an entirely different one.

If there's one thing wrong with this film, it's the ending. Orwell wrote an ending that was biting and necessary. By giving the film an upbeat ending, it somewhat undermines a first rate film. But I can't ignore the power of the previous 73 minutes, so I'm still recommending it.

***1/2 out of 4 stars