The bacon was dry and hard to swallow.

             While I understand that this would be a good story to try to depict on film, John Stevenson, Alan Janes and their crew did not give it justice whatsoever. “Animal Farm” was not only full of historical inaccuracies, but was not true to the dystopian novel by George Orwell either. Not to mention the grotesque animation, while I sure it was an admirable attempt at the time, makes the made-for-TV movie nothing less than ridiculous. It was filled with splatters of adultery, alcoholism, and don’t forget plenty of splatters of dribbling pig slobber. How it managed to get a Primetime Emmy absolutely dumbfounds me.

            Unfortunately, the movie did not manage to convey the fundamental directive of the 1945 novel. “Animal Farm”, while still considered a fable, isn’t supposed to be something that looks like it escaped from the pages of a child’s fairytale book. The story is meant to show how a group of farm animals overthrow their neglectful owner. Just when it seems like they have established a new, somewhat democratic way a life a group of pigs, who the rest of the animals chose to be leaders, seem to get a bit too power hungry and things end up being worse for the poor creatures than when they were in the hands of the drunkard farmer. It’s an allegorical and satirical story, referencing any totalitarian power and especially the reign of Stalin over in Russia but this movie just doesn’t get that across.

            For me the only really redeeming factor of this movie was the protagonist and narrator, a maternal and soft-spoken sheep dog by the name of Jessie, voiced over by Julia Ormond. She really was the only one who seemed to be anything even remotely like a dynamic character. And as lovable as Jessie’s character was, she wasn’t supposed to be a major role in the story. In fact, she was barely even mentioned in the book. Which leads me to how much the movie did not stay true to the book. Other than the obvious likeness to a children’s bedtime story, there seem to be an extensive amount of little inaccuracies. Mollie (Julia Louise-Dreyfus), the ditsy and shallow mare, was supposed to be a pretty white color but in the movie turned out to be a lacklustre grey appaloosa. One horse, Clover, is missing from the film altogether. Old Major, the elderly pig who starts the entire uproar, was supposed to die peacefully in his sleep, was shot, and not even in cold blood which would support the upraising but by mistake when the farmer tripped while carrying a gun. Also I’m not exactly sure where they got the idea to put narrated video clips on the television in the barn because this is nowhere in the novel. Now that I mention it, there shouldn’t have even been sound on that television historically, nor microphones for that matter. Having just recently read the book, all these little aberrations were completely distracting from even trying to enjoy this movie.

            I give this movie a one star out of five. The inaccuracies were distracting, the characters were lacklustre, the animation was just plain ridiculous, and the key message was not conveyed at all. If George Orwell was still with us, I’m sure he would cringe every time this movie is played. If I were him I might even cry. I sentence this movie off to the slaughter house.