Animal Farm Reviews

In a series of flashbacks, we learn the history of Animal Farm before it was decimated by a flood. Fed up with the neglect of its drunken owner, Jones (Peter Postlethwaite), his critters stage a rebellion and oust him from the property. Inspired by the inspirational leadership of Snowball Pig (Kelsey Grammer), the new order initially succeeds. But once the scheming hogs Napoleon Pig (Patrick Stewart) and Squealer Pig (Ian Holm) assume control, barnyard residents like Jessie Dog (Julia Ormond) and Boxer Horse (Paul Scofield) are relegated to second class citizenship. Under their tyrannical rule the Farm becomes a parody of the former human regime. Snowball is ostracized; Jessie's puppies are raised by the state; and poor Boxer (Paul Scofield) is relegated to the glue factory. Worse yet, Napoleon forms an alliance with a neighboring human farmer for his own porcine benefit. In a film that could be called BABE PROLETARIAT, heavy-handed satire supplants the brilliant insights contained in George Orwell's classic novel. What should engage us as a morality tale about totalitarianism winds up a cautionary saga about the danger of introducing porkers to gin. As this pig-proganda ensues, the viewer neither feels sorrow for the mistreated beasts nor experiences insight into the workings of political repression.