Animal Farm is filmmaker Andy Serkis’ mediocre animated adaptation of George Orwell’s classic book. It’s almost impossible to turn the visionary novella into a successful film, so the movie deserves points for trying.
It’s just that the movie feels like it trivializes the material that was lifted from the novella in order to occasionally feature modern-day music that doesn’t fit in with the ideas that Orwell terrifically imagined in his daring, original literary work.
Gaten Matarazzo provides the voice for Lucky, the pig who is at the center of Animal Farm. Lucky is the character who the movie depends on in order to win the audience over, and he’s as generic an animal as they come.
Framed with the story of Lucky and his friends being told to some other animals, Animal Farm misses the mark for greatness by streamlining some very complex material into a movie that is more cut-and-dried than it thinks it is.
Laverne Cox’s seemingly earnest Snowball is a leader who is smart and sincere at the outset, as someone the other animals admire, although Cox’s character doesn’t last too long into Serkis’ Animal Farm. Instead, Seth Rogen’s Napoleon becomes the central manipulative character in the film.
Rogen’s voice fits the large pig he plays to a tee, but the movie loses its footing with scenes of Napoleon trying to convince the other animals he’s on their side when he’s not.
When the animals escape a truck going to a slaughterhouse (they initially think it’s a “laughter house” because the ‘S’ is covered), they try to make a go of things on their own as the animals charge money for their farm goods when it becomes clear they must pay money to keep custody of their land.
There is a “wise beyond his years” horse named Boxer (Woody Harrelson) who is the voice of reason throughout Animal Farm. Harrelson’s heartfelt vocal work is top-notch. It’s easy to see where this story is heading, though, and it’s a disservice to kids to present them with the engaging and provocative story of the novella in such a haphazard and flat manner.
It’s as easy as good pig vs. bad pig if you examine the bare bones structure of Animal Farm. Glenn Close plays the human Frieda Pilkington, who is a cardboard cutout in terms of her presentation in the movie.
There was a lot of depth on Orwell’s pages in the famed short book, and the movie is dealing with it in a Cliffs Notes type of style that makes the story accessible to audiences while, unfortunately, sacrificing the integrity and power of the original work in the process.
There’s a good deal of intelligence on the screen in scenes of Animal Farm. “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” are words spoken by Napoleon, but because we know Seth Rogen so well as a performer, the character isn’t as scary as he was in the book.
Instead, Napoleon becomes a fool thanks to the animals’ efforts, but Napoleon needed more of a distinct edge on-screen to feel threatening.
Animal Farm isn’t necessarily a total washout. It opens the conversation up for discussions on the material it presents as supplemental material to the novella.
It’s like “feeding” something healthy to the viewer by passing it off as an ordinary tale of good and evil. There’s some substance here, but not enough to make the movie feel like it’s successfully making the points the novella drove home so well.
Serkis is playing the role of Randolph the Rooster in the movie, and Serkis is clearly in awe of the material. This animated movie could have been tightened up a bit in the editing room.
As it plays now, it lacks substance and tends to favor themes of teamwork and achievement over social topics that go way beyond the simplicity of those themes that the movie attempts to drive home.
Animal Farm is from Angel Studios. That’s the company releasing the movie to the public, and it’s known for its religious films, most of all.
Animal Farm is not religious, but it’s ambitious to a fault. And, ultimately, it’s hollow inside as it attempts to spoon-feed daring topics to the viewer in such a way that it forgets the reason it’s feeding them to the audience in the first place.
Animal Farm is currently playing in theaters.
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Thomas Duffy
Thomas Duffy is a Critics Choice member who has written film reviews for most of his life, starting at age 11 when he crafted his first full length movie critique on the film, "Roxanne," a Cyrano story featuring Steve Martin. As a result of that review and other movie obsessive writing, Thomas was awarded a creative writing award in sixth grade. Thomas is the proud author of nine books, including two highly acclaimed novels, "To Never Know" and "Social Work." Thomas can be found on X (formerly known as Twitter) or at a New York City movie theater watching the latest hit or independent movie. You can also run into him at Tribeca or at the New York Film Festival.