Animal Farm, directed by John Stephenson, and released in 1999, was based on a book called Animal Farm by George Orwell. Animal Farm, the film, is about book written to describe or set an example of Socialism and Communism. In the beginning of the book, Old Major, the old pig, begins the idea of a rebellion, and dies peacefully later. In the movie, Old Major, voiced by Peter Ustinov, after spreading news of the rebellion is shot by Farmer Jones, acted by Jer O'Leary. Throughout the movie and book, many evils are faced and in the ending of the book, the pigs basically turn into men and the animals are faced with slavery. In the movie, it ends when Clover, Jessie, and several of the other animals run away and come back after Napoleon, voiced by Patrick Stewart, the main antagonist, dies. Throughout the movie, there are multiple life changing choices made by the pigs to further confuse and take advantage of the stupid animals. Most of the plot follows the book, but there are quite a few additions. Besides the major ending change, the biggest and worst change was the "relationship" between Mr. Jones and Mrs. Pilkington. This was added very early on when Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Jones have a "get together" which ends up with Mr. Pilkington getting very drunk and falling asleep. Later, when Mr. Jones goes to his room, Mrs. Pilkington is in his bed. An extremely unnecessary, disturbing, and pointless sexual encounter ensues. This was very wrong to add considering it nearly ruins a film on a very powerful book. Another example is that Old Major is not shot, nor is his skull placed on display. Most importantly, the endings of the book and movie are drastically different considering the fact that the book ends very sadly, and the movie ends with hope. Also, the "traitors" who helped Snowball weren't hung, they had their throats ripped out. It's quite different. Even though that would have been very gory, it doesn't follow the book. Another example is when the pigs used the TV as a distraction and a way to film commercials instead of meetings. This is completely illogical even if it did happen in the book. Would a barn really have electric outlets? Or would pigs know how to film commercials, add music, and captions, and then put them on a TV? No, of course not. They don't even have thumbs. This was clearly just another badly thought out addition to the movie. The movie would have been better off sticking to the books plot and actual themes. Overall, Animal Farm, the film did not stick to the books plot, and added illogical, and even sexual content to the film which distracted and even ruined the books focus on Communism and Socialism. Animal Farm actors and actresses all acted very well, and the voiceover's sounded on top and matched the animal animation. The film quality was a bit blurry, but for a 1999 film it was decent. The animal mouth movements were cheesy, but effective.

The movie is well edited so the dialogue and movements seem more natural in most places. It has a few grim scenes but nothing too bad. I really like this movie a lot and the symbolism is conveyed nicely. Whether you're simply a little misanthropic or a history buff you'll probably like this movie quite a bit. The characters were very easy to relate to, at least in my opinion. The few songs in the movie are presented in a tasteful manner. This movie shouldn't be classified as a musical however. I think this movie would be great to show to kids in high school or maybe even middle school as it could be a good educational resource.

I love the book and it may even be one of the best books I've ever read with complex characters and a interesting storyline that becomes even greater when you remember that it's a satire on the Russian Revolution. This captures none of that, focusing on Jessie (A character that plays no part except for giving birth to Napoleon's bodyguards) and while I don't like that, it is quite interesting as the book is told from the point of view of the animals. The ending is completely changed which also changes the whole meaning of the story that the government always becomes corrupt with the workers rebelling but soon becoming the same corrupt government that they had despised. The whole film feels rushed and wouldn't if they didn't dedicate around 60% of the film to the humans who have nothing interesting but to make fun of Mr Jones with their painful accents. There are so many moments where I actually burst out laughing at how badly made it is, that it's actually quite depressing. I was further shocked to learn that it had stars like Kelsey Grammar and Patrick Stewart in it! I bet they regret that now. The death of Boxer feels rushed to hell, it should be sad and disorientating, instead it's funny. I know it's going to be near impossible to capture the Orwellian feel to it, but they could have tried. This film is a joke to the film industry. Going with the whole metaphor, if this film was an animal, I'd put it down. Seeing the animals speak with the horrendously obvious CGI is excruciatingly painful and don't get me started on how bad the pigs look. To conclude, this film is awful. If you liked the book, avoid this film. If you loved the book, AVOID THIS FILM. The film's only good quality is that you can joke about it with friends

I actually started to like orwell watching this movie. I was still a bit young (14), but had always liked history, so the picture was appealing. When I watched it, the message was very clear and despite later I formulated my own ideas about communism, it showed me the difference about this system and a dictatorship disguised. Was a good adaptation and in my opinion, the end was a conclusion about what really happened in the real life. The fact that they go back to the human control is more like a trauma to what they remember about their "freedom" with Napoleon. People tend to run away from the more recent trauma, having short memory.