Animal Farm (2025)
The Spin
Left narrative
Serkis delivers a gorgeously animated, wildly entertaining adaptation of "Animal Farm" that proves Orwell's prescience extends beyond Stalinism to modern authoritarianism. The film's romantic visuals and family-friendly approach make complex political themes accessible while maintaining emphatic messages about equality and collective power. The casting of Rogen and Culkin provide commercial appeal, and the screenplay cleverly incorporates Trumpian flourishes and far-right rhetoric. This timely reimagining works on multiple levels, offering both entertainment and important commentary on contemporary society's drift toward authoritarianism via 21st century populism.
Right narrative
This adaptation is a fundamental betrayal of Orwell's work. By reframing "Animal Farm" away from its clear critique of Stalinism and communist totalitarianism, the film blurs historical specificity into a generic warning about “power,” wealthy villains, and “rich people bad” messaging. Orwell’s insight — that revolutionary socialism curdles into tyranny regardless of intentions — is displaced by a fashionable suspicion of capitalism itself, ignoring its role in preserving pluralism and material freedom. The result drains the allegory of its moral precision and political courage.
Cynical narrative
This "Animal Farm" flattens Orwell into a Zootopia-style caricature, swapping political insight for pratfalls, fart jokes and cutesy chaos. Serkis’ hyperactive toon energy, celebrity voices and adorable piglet surrogate reduce a sharp allegory into noisy kiddie fare. The result isn’t bold reinterpretation but dilution: a story so busy chasing laughs and “accessibility” that its meaning gets lost in slapstick, turning a warning about power into just another frantic animated romp.
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