Animal Farm

“This is certainly one interpretation. It absolutely is not the best interpretation of this work. While it captures the corruption of the pigs, it does nothing to further the actual ideas presented in the original work. And I don't think that was accidental. It's a shame that a story which is so important gets mismanaged in its popular representation, so that a new generation that watches it does not understand why it is so important.”

“Now I'm not sure we really needed another adaptation of Orwell's timeless critique on the pig-eat-pig world of animal hierarchies, but Andy Serkis clearly thought we did. The farmer has been forced into bankruptcy by the avaricious "Miss Pilkington" who wants his land, but luckily "Snowball" notices that the lorry purportedly taking them on a vacation isn't actually heading to the laughterhouse - but there is an extra "s" which they hadn't quite clocked. Alarmed, the horses, cows, sheep, chicks and aforementioned porcines leap back to safety and now without their human master conclude that they do not need people at all. Of course, they do need rules if they are to run their farm and those are carefully painted on the water tower acclaiming their equalities and rights, but an early realisation that they could do with electricity causes a bit of individual thinking that "Napoleon" and his sheepish followers see an an act of independence too far! Might this spell the end of their liberté, egalité and fraternité culture? There's quite a scathing analysis of the human need for leadership depicted here, and as far as this goes it showcases not just the desire of some to govern and some to be ruled, but also of the effects of the evils of capitalism - as depicted by the space-age "Pilkington" as a catalyst for greed and ambition. This one tells that story adequately if hardly innovatively, and the personalisations of the characters with traits more readily associated with their (banned) two legged creatures - though where does that leave the rooster - work fine as the "some are more equal than others" elements creep in. It's all perfectly watchable, there are no songs to clutter things up and the message of the original novel is well delivered to what might be some new eyes and ears. You're highly unlikely to ever recall this, but it's a competent effort from all.”