Film Review: Animal Farm (1999)

Jean-Marc Saint Laurent

03 February 2013

Dr. D. Smith

ENG British Fantasy Literature

Film Review: Animal Farm

Being an animal fantasy written by a true literary heavyweight, Animal Farm was written by George Orwell and published in 1949 as an allegorical novel taking aim at the Russian Revolution. This review will cover its live-action television film adaptation from 1999.

The Rundown

The film adaptation mostly follows the setup provided by Orwell’s story: animals disgruntled due to their maltreatment from humans, who have the power of capital and facility to dominate them, are charged by the aged boar Old Major to fight for a future in which all animals would be free. In the film version, Old Major is shortly killed thereafter by a freak accident involving a Farmer Jones’ shotgun.

            What follows are a series of political manuevers by the more intelligent pigs in order to continue with the movement. Snowball the pig encourages the animals in violent revolt against their human masters. The men and women scared of the uproar, flee the Manor Farm to convene over their concerns at a local pub. Snowball then earnestly pig tries to educate the animals, seeking the betterment of each creature. It proceeds to establish a list, an outline for a new political theory known as “Animalism” (an obvious nod to socialism), which it scrawls onto the front of the barn.  Although it gains the faith and respect of some of the other animals it is soon chased off the property by the opportunistic swine Napoleon, who enlists the help of a vicious dogs for enforcing policy.

Meanwhile at the pub, a wealthier landowner, Mr. Pilkington, berates Farmer Jones for his apparent cowardice and stupidity, claiming that under new leadership (his), the local men could show the animals who is in charge. This second skirmish with the animals also fails, so Pilkington begins using the new strategy of joining those he cannot beat. He secretly begins trading with the powerful pigs at Animal Farm (the former Manor Farm).

Napoleon and its kind begin using their newly gained rule to exploit animal labor for building a windmill and changing the tenets of Animalism to include their current excesses. The film ends with Napoleon mysteriously leaving his position of power due to insanity or death (one cannot be sure) and the creatures awaiting some seemingly nicer family to take control of the farm.

Contentions and Concerns

            One of the issues with the made-for-television picture that becomes glaringly obvious half-way through is its desire to be something other than its source material. While none can expect film and literature to cover all the same points verbatim, the general idea is that the latter would remain veritable to the former. With their focus on family-friendly elements such as animals gone awry and pigs muzzling beverages from fine china, it seems the filmmakers would have rather worked with literature the speed of Doctor Do Little than George Orwell. Unfortunately, these choices make sense when one recognizes the producer of such a project is Hallmark Entertainment.

Another issue with the film’s comedic tilt is that it presents the humans as two-dimensional mental sloths. There is very little surprise when the animals start making their demands in the English language; thereby eroding the viewer’s suspension of belief necessary to entertain the entirety of the movie’s plot. Mr. Pilkington is perfectly fine doing business with a pig, and when speaking of the animals’ unrest earlier in the film, uses language reminiscent of one dealing with ungrateful employees.

Admittedly, what this viewer would have enjoyed seeing more of is further exploitation and experimentation with the fantastical elements apparent in Orwell’s original text. The first of Animalism’s rules states that “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy,” with the following echoing that “whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.” After breaking all the other rules, Napoleon and his allies eventually defy these foundational tenets and walk as though they were men in Orwell’s original story. Seeing this on screen would have brought the entirety of the pigs’ transformation home—an opportunity missed.

            This is not to say that the filmmakers fail to make helpful contributions to the original content. For one, the way they chose to capture the pig-man similarity scene was commendable: while investigating the pigs, Mollie the faithful sheep dog peeks in on one of the meetings that Napoleon has taken with Pilkington. While both the pig and man laugh, the view the audience is given from Mollie’s side of the window distorts the two parties and dares us to identify the four-legged from the two-legged.

In short, the 1999 television film version of Animal Farm from Hallmark International and TNT Network is a mildly entertaining film that keeps the attention of both children and adults. However, for individuals seeking a faithful representation of George Orwell’s classic novel, this reader recommends giving other renditions a viewing instead, such as the 1954 animated feature.