Animal Farm (1954)

February 7, 2025 8:04 PM

Animal Farm is a 1954 animated drama film directed and produced by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who also made changes to the original script. Based on the 1945 novella Animal Farm by George Orwell, the film features narration by Gordon Heath, with the voices of all animals provided by Maurice Denham. The rights for a film adaptation were purchased from Orwell's widow Sonia after she was approached by agents working for the Office of Policy Coordination, a branch of the CIA that dealt with the use of culture to combat communism. Despite being a box office flop, taking fifteen years to generate a profit, the film quickly became a staple in classrooms. - Wikipedia

Available on Tubi.

The Production section on Wikipedia has more information on the CIA’s involvement in the film and the changes that were made.

posted by bunderful (5 comments total)

I read the book once, when I was rather young and had minimal context. My mom mentioned that it was an allegory for communism. I was traumatized by the story of Boxer and that may be why I never read it again.

There’s more familiarity than I expected, though.

In my head, “Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland” has always been sung to the tune of “Darling Clementine. The film’s treatment is throwing me off a bit.
posted by bunderful at 8:15 PM on February 7 [2 favorites]

It really, really bothered me that we don't hear all the animals speak and it's mainly just moos and quacks and bleats. Language is used (and abused) in a very specific way in the book and we lose that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:04 PM on February 7 [5 favorites]

I am never ever going to re-watch this, because I saw it at school as a young child as a double feature with Watership Down (Yes! Seriously! No, I don't know either!). I remember that it made an impression.
posted by confluency at 3:06 AM on February 8 [6 favorites]

As a kid I decided to be a workhorse like Boxer but be aware of what's going on like Benjamin. Benjamin is my favorite, but I wish he had more ability to change things.
posted by obol at 4:22 PM on February 8 [1 favorite]

Also traumatised by Boxer's fate.
This is a film that always seems to be shelved in the children's section of the library I work at. I'm forever moving it to the adult section
posted by Fence at 10:40 AM on February 10 [1 favorite]