Film Review: ‘Animal Farm’ is a Baffling Family Friendly Take on the Seminal George Orwell Story

I almost don’t know what to say about this one. The George Orwell novella Animal Farm is many things, but family friendly and containing a happy ending are hardly among them. So, I’m just baffled by what director Andy Serkis is doing here with this updated animated film version. Orwell’s works often are meant to be read as warnings. This movie barely has a message, instead throwing every annoying animated cliche at you that’s meant to make the youngest of viewers giggle, at the expense of adults everywhere. I suppose this review is a warning of sorts, at least? Fart jokes and multiple udder gags? Check. Well-realized allegory? Not so much.

Animal Farm shaves down almost everything that made Orwell’s cautionary tale (as opposed to this, which has been dubbed a, gulp…cautionary tail) stand the test of time. Instead of a bleak tale of human nature that sought to be the anti-Stalinist message of the moment, we have a dumbed down kids flick. Evil corporations are the target here, which is all well and good, but Animal Farm, it is not. Worse still, and we’ll get into it more below, the moments where Serkis and company actually are going to the source material, it feels out of the place. The middling children’s story being depicted actually ends up feeling more at hime in Animal Farm than, frankly, Animal Farm.

The bones of the story are the same here, as an animal revolution on a failing farm is supposed to result in an animal utopia, until the pigs seize it’s transformed into a ruthless dictatorship. Here, we again have boar Napoleon (voice of Seth Rogen) corrupting the harmonious message of Snowball (voice of Laverne Cox) for his own greedy means. An audience surrogate main character is presented here in piglet character Lucky (voice of Gaten Matarazzo), while there’s also a human villain in Freida Pilkington (voice of Glenn Close).

As Napoleon takes control and dispatches with Snowball, as well as the hardworking senior horse Boxer (voice of Woody Harrelson), he also forms an alliance with Pilkington, while also bringing the pigs up on two feet. Without getting into the rest of the plot changes, the main noticeable element is the ending, which now is meant to leave you on a positive note, instead of a sobering one. It’s a mind-boggling decision.

The voice work here is nothing to write home about, though everyone is overqualified for their roles. Seth Rogen is an interesting choice for Napoleon, though it only really pays dividends when he’s coming to power in a moment that’s clearing a Donald Trump riff. Glenn Close is having a good time playing an animated villain again, Laverne Cox is fine, and Gaten Matarazzo is limited by a fairly pointless character. Woody Harrelson seems bored, which sort of fits Boxer. The rest of the supporting voices includes Steve Buscemi, Kieran Culkin, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner, and Iman Vellani, as well as Serkis himself.

Andy Serkis directs a screenplay adaptation by Nicholas Stoller, both of whom are talented filmmakers. Here, they just do not work. Stoller’s script never misses an opportunity to do some silly bit that strays far from Orwell, while the moments that hit on the book’s points feel very tossed off. Serkis loses all personality in the direction, which comes off as second tier. I’d never say that he misunderstands Orwell. I’ll just exhibit confusion at this being what he wants to do with his version of Animal Farm. I truly don’t understand how this could be it.

Animal Farm truly is a baffling experience. Regarded as one of the great works of literature, it’s now just a throwaway cartoon, one that’s turned into something family friendly and dull. We’ve never been more politically divided, so maybe largely shaving away the politics at play is a purposeful attempt to bring audiences together, but the result just misses the point. The film is never overtly bad, to be fair, but it does feel incredibly misguided, which is a real shame.

SCORE: ★★