Animal Farm (2026)
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Premise: An animated adaptation of George Orwell’s novel. Farm animals rebel against human beings and seize control of the means of production. A tech CEO (voice of Glenn Close) makes a deal with the pigs who lead the farm, gradually corrupting their utopia.
What Works: This version of Animal Farm has been conceived as an animated feature. The visual style is similar to the films produced by Illumination and DreamWorks Animation which tend to be light and cartoonish. George Orwell’s novel was neither light nor cartoonish. It was a brutal allegory of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. The contrast between the seriousness of the story and the cartoonishness of the visual style plays subversively. This adaptation of Animal Farm reimagines the story for contemporary viewers, elaborating on elements of Orwell’s novel and connecting the ideas with contemporary concerns about technology companies. It also reimagines the character of Snowball (voice of Laverne Cox). In the novel, Snowball represented Leon Trotsky, one of the intellectual leaders of the Russian communism. For this version, Snowball comes across as a well-meaning but condescending American liberal. Snowball regards the other farm animals as idiots who have to be manipulated for their own good and her arrogance inadvertently paves the way for Napolean (voice of Seth Rogan) who speaks of populism while hoarding power. This version of Animal Farm brings forward Lucky (voice of Gaten Matarazzo), a pig who finds himself in the middle of the power struggle, and centering the story on Lucky’s choices gives the film a compelling dramatic shape.
What Doesn’t: Animal Farm includes narration by Boxer (voice of Woody Harrelson), the dutiful work horse who has unwavering faith in the idea of the farm. The narration is unnecessary. It is sometimes intrusive and mostly explains the obvious. The narration inexplicably continues even after Boxer leaves the story. This adaptation of Animal Farm takes significant liberties with the source material. Changing the story is not necessarily bad. Part of the craft of adaptation is transforming the material so that it works in the new medium and great films have been created by making significant changes to the source material (see: Jaws, First Blood, and The Shining). However, some of the changes to this version of Animal Farm don’t work, especially the ending. Orwell’s book had a downbeat conclusion. The novel works toward that ending from its opening and it is the honest conclusion of this story. The 2026 adaptation of Animal Farm gets to that downbeat point and then keeps going with a final set piece that comes across tagged on and forced. The film’s ending cheapens the story’s themes. The moviemakers don’t trust the audience to sit with the somber ending, which undercuts the point of the story and is ultimately condescending to viewers.
Bottom Line: Animal Farm is a compromised movie. The filmmakers update the material for a contemporary audience and some of their choices are smart and relevant but others are disastrous.
Episode: #1099 (May 17, 2026)