Animal Farm (1954 film)

Manor Farm is a formerly prosperous farm that has fallen on hard times, while suffering under the now-ineffective leadership of its aggressive and drunken owner, Mr. Jones. One night, Old Major, the prize pig and the second-oldest animal on the farm, calls all of the animals on the farm together for a meeting, where he decries their abuse and unhappiness under Jones, encouraging the animals to oust him, while emphasizing that they must hold true to their convictions after they have gained freedom. With that, he teaches the animals a revolutionary song before collapsing dead mid-song, much to their horror.

The next morning, Mr. Jones neglects to feed the animals for breakfast, and they decide to break into his storehouse to help themselves. When Mr. Jones wakes up, before threatening them with his whip, the animals revolt and drive him away from the farm, eventually renaming it "Animal Farm". Several of Jones' acquaintances in the surrounding village rally against them, but are beaten back after a fierce fight. The animals begin destroying every trace of the farmer's influence, starting with the weapons used against them. A subsequent investigation of the farmhouse leads them to decide against living there, though one of the head pigs, a greedy Saddleback boar named Napoleon, takes interest in the abandoned house. He finds a litter of puppies left motherless and begins to raise them in secret.

The Commandments of Animalism are written on a wall of the barn to illustrate their community's laws. The most important is the last, stating that: "All animals are equal." All the animals work, but the workhorse, Boxer, and his friend Benjamin the donkey, who is also the film's protagonist, put in extra work. Meanwhile, Old Major's successor, Snowball attempts to teach the animals about reading and writing. Food becomes plentiful and the farm runs smoothly. The pigs elevate themselves to positions of leadership and set aside special food items "by virtue of their brainwork".

As winter sets in, Snowball announces his idea for a windmill, while Napoleon opposes it. As Snowball defiantly swears to lower the animals' workdays, Napoleon has his dogs hunt down and slaughter Snowball. Afterwards, Napoleon denounces Snowball as a traitor and declares himself the new leader of Animal Farm, along with Squealer as his propagandist and second-in-command. He abolishes the practice of holding meetings to determine farm policy and appropriates all decision-making powers to himself. The animals eventually work harder because of the promise of an easier life, once the windmill is completed.

During this time, the pigs also decide to alter their own laws once they joined Napoleon and Squealer. "No animal shall sleep in a bed" is changed to "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets", when the pigs are discovered to have been sleeping in the old farmhouse. Before long, Napoleon's greed drives him to negotiate with a local trader named Mr. Whymper for a supply of both jellies and jams. The price is all of the hens' eggs. When the hens discover this, they attempt to revolt by throwing their eggs at the pigs during an attempted seizure by force, as they had remembered Old Major's speech. To instill fear, Napoleon holds a "trial" where a sheep and a duck join the hens accused as traitors. They are taken outside and butchered by the dogs, with their blood used to add the words "without cause" to the end of the commandment "No animal shall kill another animal." Napoleon bans "Beasts of England", declaring that the revolution is complete and the dream of Animal Farm has finally been realized. He then threatens to execute any animal caught singing it.

Growing jealous of Whymper's financial success due to his trading with Animal Farm, a hostile group of pirate farmers attack the farm. Mr. Jones, shunned for his failure and drunkenness, uses dynamite to blow up the windmill with himself inside it. Though the animals win the battle, they do so at a great cost of lives and Boxer is wounded. Boxer continues working until he collapses one night while working on rebuilding the windmill. Napoleon sends for a van to take Boxer away, which Benjamin recognizes as the "death wagon" from Whymper's glue factory. Afterwards, a supply of alcohol is secretly delivered. At the same time, Squealer "mourns" Boxer's death and delivers a phony speech, claiming to have been near Boxer's side at his deathbed, and states that his last words were to glorify Napoleon. The upset animals see through the propaganda and recognize how oppressive Napoleon has become, but are driven away by the snarling dogs before anything can be done. That night, the pigs toast to Boxer's memory by consuming whisky that they bought with his life.

Years pass and Napoleon, through civilizing his fellow pigs, has expanded the neighbouring farms into an enterprise. The pigs start to resemble humans, as they walk upright, carry whips, drink alcohol and wear clothes. The Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". This change finally spurs the oppressed animals of the nearby farms to gather at Animal Farm to decide upon their future. Napoleon holds a dinner party for a delegation of outside pigs, who congratulate him on having the hardest-working and lowest-consuming animals in the country. Napoleon gives a toast to a future where pigs own and operate farms everywhere. Benjamin, overhearing the conversation, briefly imagines that all the pigs have taken on the likeness of Mr. Jones.

Realizing that their living situation is even worse than it was before the revolution, the animals storm the farmhouse to overthrow Napoleon and avenge the deaths of their comrades including Snowball and Boxer. Napoleon tries to summon his guard dogs, but they are too drunk to respond, while the pigs in attendance are too scared to face the revolting horde. The film closes with the animals smashing through the house and trampling Napoleon and the pigs to death before reclaiming the farm, with Benjamin standing in grim triumph at their head.

The animation historian Brian Sibley doubts that the team responsible was aware of the source of the funding initiating the project, which came from the Central Intelligence Agency to further the creation of anti-communist art.[7][8]

Halas and Batchelor were awarded the contract to make the feature in November 1951 and it was completed in April 1954. The production employed a staff of about 80 animators.[16]

Much of the pre-release promotion for the film in the UK focused on it being a British film instead of a product of the Hollywood studios.[17]

Scenes from Animal Farm, along with the 1954 TV program Nineteen Eighty-Four, were featured in "The Two Winstons", the final episode of Simon Schama's program A History of Britain broadcast June 18, 2002.

The CIA obtained the film rights to "Animal Farm" from Orwell's widow, Sonia, after his death and covertly funded the production as anti-Communist propaganda. Some sources assert that the ending of the story was altered by the CIA (in the book, the pigs and humans join forces) to press home their message.

When first released in 1954, the British Film Board felt the film was not appropriate for children and gave it a rating certificate of "X", prohibiting anyone younger than 18 from seeing the film. The rating has since been amended to "U" (Universal), stating the film as fit for audiences of all ages.

Film critic C. A. Lejeune wrote at the time: "I salute Animal Farm as a fine piece of work… [the production team] have made a film for the eye, ear, heart and mind".[18] Matyas Seiber's score and Maurice Denham's vocal talent have been praised specifically (Denham provided every voice and animal noise in the film). The animation style has been described as "Disney-turned-serious".[19] The movie holds a 69% score at Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 critic reviews.[20]

Some criticism was levelled at the altered ending, with one paper reporting, "Orwell would not have liked this one change, with its substitution of commonplace propaganda for his own reticent, melancholy satire".[19]

The film took 15 years to recover its budget but earned profits in the next 5 years.[6]

• List of British films of 1954
• Halas and Batchelor
• List of American films of 1954
• Office of Policy Coordination
• Information Research Department

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• Animal Farm (1954)
• Animal Farm at IMDb
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• Animal Farm at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Animal Farm at Rotten Tomatoes
• Short British Pathe film on the making of the cartoon
• How the CIA brought Animal Farm to the screen
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