This animation sticks relatively closely to George Orwell's fable, though with a slightly more optimistic ending attached to a necessarily foreshortened narrative. To add more to the book, the art team made some stunningly expressionistic animated moments, create a dark and depressing ambiance with a shocking amount of violence. This wouldn't really be what you would consider a children's movie, though there is included some comedic relief on occasion (mostly in the form of a young duckling who struggles to keep up with the other animals, usually with slapstick results).
Two things really set this movie apart from the book. The first is that most of the story is told visually, with very little direct dialog (though quite a bit of voice-over narration). In many cases the meaning is understood without the animals using English or being particularly anthropomorphic. Secondly is the use of sound, with animal-noise recreations of songs and real animal calls used to create an interesting sort of realism. The imagination in the drawing and working out how the world of the Animal Farm works is some of the highlights of the movies, and some of the visual puns on communism were a nice bonus.
I still prefer the book because Orwell's use of language and his particular focus on the degradation of the initial laws into their pig-twisted counterpart is one of the most effective uses of the extended metaphor for the ways in which language and memory is used for power. This movie is a good introduction into the basic ideas of Animal Farm but does not have enough space or time to fully realize everything that happened. Instead, it is a more emotional brushstroke towards the same themes, using the power of imagery and sound to get the audience worked up and aware.
--PolarisDiB
Two things really set this movie apart from the book. The first is that most of the story is told visually, with very little direct dialog (though quite a bit of voice-over narration). In many cases the meaning is understood without the animals using English or being particularly anthropomorphic. Secondly is the use of sound, with animal-noise recreations of songs and real animal calls used to create an interesting sort of realism. The imagination in the drawing and working out how the world of the Animal Farm works is some of the highlights of the movies, and some of the visual puns on communism were a nice bonus.
I still prefer the book because Orwell's use of language and his particular focus on the degradation of the initial laws into their pig-twisted counterpart is one of the most effective uses of the extended metaphor for the ways in which language and memory is used for power. This movie is a good introduction into the basic ideas of Animal Farm but does not have enough space or time to fully realize everything that happened. Instead, it is a more emotional brushstroke towards the same themes, using the power of imagery and sound to get the audience worked up and aware.
--PolarisDiB