A new film set for release with an all-star cast has been slammed as ‘an abomination’ by critics.
Animal Farm, directed by Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, has turned George Orwell’s classic 1945 satirical allegory concerning the rise of Stalinism into a comedy-adventure animation, complete with fart jokes.
Starring the vocal talents of Seth Rogen, Oscar winner Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson, Stranger Things’ actor Gaten Matarazzo and Steve Buscemi among others, the trailer for the movie also caused a stink last year.
Fans dubbed the first look at the film ‘absolutely horrific’, ‘unfunny 3D animation slop for kids’ and hoped it was a parody because its tone was ‘so over the top and at odds with the source material’.
Sadly, it appears that their concerns are founded with the latest round of reviews going live ahead of its US theatrical release on May 1, following its premiere at Annecy International Animation Film Festival last June.
‘There are bad movies, and then there are movies that drain all life and joy out of a person’s soul. The new animated Animal Farm falls firmly into the latter category,’ warned Consequence of Sound’s review, adding that while the movie was aimed at children it was ‘really for no one with any sense or taste’.
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It was also described as ‘a tonal nightmare’.
The Hollywood Reporter bemoaned this adaptation, written by Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Nicholas Stoller, for ‘sacrificing the story’s powerful anti-Stalinist message for a dumbed-down critique of corporatisation featuring human villains’.
Orwell’s novella famously, of course, features an almost entirely animal cast with Napolean (Rogen) widely considered the eventual prime antagonist, as the leader-turned-brutal-dictator of the farmyard who leads every creature to ruination.
‘I’ve read Orwell’s novella, but I don’t think there was a moment in which Napoleon, the Saddleback boar who becomes the villain of the piece after rising to power on the farm, lets loose a big wet one and exclaims: “This is the sound of freedom!”,’ added critic Frank Scheck.
The Wrap also slammed this version of Animal Farm, the third onscreen adaptation after the 1954 British animation and 1999 live-action movie, for its ‘all-new characters and a Hollywood-friendly, mega-happy ending’.
New characters include Lucky (Matarazzo), a young piglet who acts as the audience surrogate.
‘This film’s sins go beyond shying away from the executions of young pigs or the book’s haunting, unhappy ending,’ wrote Liz Declan for Screen Rant. ‘The filmmakers’ changes have resulted in the complete bastardisation of the original story and its meaning.’
‘Some adaptations, it seems, are far less equal than others,’ she added.
An earlier one-star review from The Telegraph’s Tim Robey, following Animal Farm’s London Film Festival screening in October, described the movie as ‘a shudder-worthy nightmare’ and its visuals as ‘unremittingly horrid’.
‘The bizarre achievement of this new film is to make us feel trapped and punished through every phase of the story,’ Robey marvelled.
The imminent adaptation is produced by faith-based Utah production company Angel Studios, known for its ‘values-based’ projects and strong Christian themes.
It was also behind the controversial 2023 movie Sound of Freedom, as well as upcoming chocolate biopic Hershey – the recent trailer of which had viewers describing it as ‘awful’ and feeling like ‘an AI prompt’.
Currently sitting on a measly 36% score from 14 reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, this version of Animal Farm has so far only attracted a handful of early more positive reactions out of Annecy from Screen International and Deadline.
This adaptation has been in the works since 2011 with Serkis attached, originally as a co-screenwriter, and with Netflix initially purchasing distribution rights in 2018.
Numerous delays saw production finally commence in 2022.
Animal Farm releases in US cinemas on Friday, May 1. It is yet to recieve a UK release date.
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