An ultimately disappointing adaptation of George Orwell's classic allegorical novel.

Having recently reread George Orwell's brilliant allegorical novel, Animal Farm, I thought I would give this 1954 animated adaptation a try.  It has an interesting legend attached to it.  Reportedly the CIA was looking to produce anti-communist propaganda in movies and so they bought the rights from Orwell's widow (with supposedly part of the deal being that the CIA would arrange for her to meet her idol, Clark Gable).  The depth of the CIA's connection has never been fully disclosed, because the government continues to decline Freedom of Information Act requests concerning the film.  The altered ending to the story certainly seems to support the idea.

Although there are subtle and not so subtle differences between the cartoon and the book, they both follow the same general plot.  Mr. Jones is a cruel and careless farmer.  One night his animals hold a meeting in his barn where the Old Major, an old and respected pig, gives an impassioned speech about the need for animals to rise up and overthrow their human masters.  His speech enflames the animals, but he cautions them that if they should ever accomplish this, they must never then become like men.  Shortly thereafter the old Major dies.

When a drunken Jones forgets to feed the animals one day, the revolt is sparked, led by the two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon.  Together they manage to take control of the farm with relative ease, but soon clash over who should lead the animals.  Things go well for the farm for a short while, but soon, the pigs, the smartest of the animals discover that old adage about all power corrupting.

The book ends with a classic scene and the rather chilling line, "The creatures outside looked
from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."  The movie on the other hand, ends differently, it continues past that point to try and provide a more upbeat ending that is far less effective.

Of course, while that's the plot, the real underlying story of Animal Farm is the story of communist Russia.  Mr. Jones represents the Czar and the farm, Russia itself.  The Old Major is Karl Marx, Snowball is Trotsky and Napoleon is Stalin.  It's really the story of how a vision of utopia was twisted and corrupted by those in power until it became worse than the thing that was revolted against.  As a condemnation of communism, it's easy to see why the CIA in the early 1950s would love this book.

This animated adaptation is very disappointing.  This is an adult story, but the animators felt the need to throw in several cute and "funny" scenes of baby farm animals, which is about as far from the point of this story as you can get.  The dialogue has also been reduced, replaced instead by an avuncular narrator.   This has the effect of eliminating or drastically reducing the depth of personality of the animals.  In particular, my favorite character in the book, Benjamin the fatalistic and cynical Donkey who states that life at the very bottom of society is the same no matter what the government, has his personality changed completely.

I'm fairly certain no big screen version could ever live up to the book, but it certainly deserved a better attempt than this.  It should serve only as an introduction to the story

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