The movie is great... yes it extended the story a bit and updated it a bit so as to extend the allorgy to today's Communist countries. But I think, if Eric Arthur Blair was living today, he would have done the same. It was still true to the book and the original message (as opposed to the 50's movie which sucked).Oh and fables have ALWAYS been regarded as being made for children when in reality they where NEVER made for children - it's just that some adults are too stupid to get what it is really about. So, no this is definitely not for children - well at least children should not be regarded as the target audience.Besides, I love Patrick Stewart and Peter Ustinov.

To me, the saddest thing about this dreadful film is the presence of genuinely fine actors like Paul Scofield and Peter Ustinov. What these artists saw in the script that would make them want to accept it is something I simply cannot understand. It is understandable that non-talents like Grammar and Stewart would wish to be in anything, but Messrs Socfield and Ustinov?Everything went wrong with this, from its surprisingly poor script, to charmless direction, the uninteresting and unhelpful music and camera-work that may work all right on a TV commercial for mouthwash but not in what is supposed to be a serious production. A woebegotten attempt and a farrago. I could not recommend it at all.

Considering the book was written by George Orwell in 1945, the message of the story is not hard to get. The story of the farm animals parallel directly to the rise of the Soviet Union not too long before the book was written. The film as well as the book is about animals at a farm who feel oppressed by the humans, until one pig called Old Major encourage them to start a revolution. When Old Major dies the pig called Napoleon (voiced by Patrick Stewrat)continues the revolution and start his new era of equality among all animals, or what he calls Animalism. However it does not take much time before Napoleon gets corrupted and creates a dictatorship.Old Major is Stalin, a man with some good ideas for a revolution which was destroyed by the takeover by Stalin or in this case Napoleon. Even though communism in Russia was the inspiration for the book due to it's relevancy at the time, this story will always be relevant. For this story was very old even when it was written. And it amazes me how powerful this story can be even today.I have not seen the cartoon version from the 50's, but I doubt they can have the same impact as this movie. Being a real-life film it feels much more real. And normally talking animals movies are kinda cheesy, not this one. The story was serious all through the end. It was well made, and well acted by the few humans in it. The message comes through clearly, and the horrors of dictatorship and hard labour (almost slavery) is portrayed frightenly well. Had George Orwell seen this, I think he would be proud. I give this film a 9/10.

No, really... this movie confounds me. I don't know who this movie is intended for. I am a high school English teacher, and my kids wanted to see the "one with the real animals." (I teach in an inner-city school, mind you.) So I decided to show this one in addition to the 1954 animated version, which itself is a pretty mediocre adaptation.Wow. Just... wow. I had to do a frontloading lesson on what "heavy handed" means. We also talked about patronizing your audience. Now, if this is supposed to be a *children's* movie, which the simplistic and overbearing narration--along with an even more ridiculous happy ending than the animated version--lead one to believe, why is there the addition of the sexual relations between Mrs. Plikington and Mr. Jones. Why the graphic shots of meat being chopped up? It's pretty dark for a kids' movie. On the other hand, if it is for adults... Plus, to fully understand it, you really have to have read the book; but if you've read the book, the additions and omissions will probably infuriate you (as they did me). On a side note, Jim Henson's Creature Shop does phenomenal work on the pigs! What makes it more frustrating from that angle, too, is that what they adapt straight from the book, they adapt very well. Many speeches are word for word. Many subtle nuances remain in tact. There are some nice flourishes, too, like I very much enjoy the focus on media manipulation. The inclusion of TV as distraction and pig-made films (and their improving production values--look at the first Animal Guard spot versus the final Napoleon-in-clothes one) is a great connection to modern society.However, the way the story is framed kills it. The inane narration, the sappiness. I even prefaced with asking the kids what they knew about Hallmark, to which I got one response "that's that channel old people watch." The whole "we escaped to wait for this bad stuff to be over... then it was, so we went back... and things got better... and then NEW HUMANS bought the farm... we'll never let this happen again... now we are TRULY FREE." Um. Yeah.My only suggestion is to use this as a teaching tool of how Hollywood can butcher a good story.