The most satisfying part of George Orwell’s “1984” is the rousing ending, in which tormented everyman Winston Smith’s torture at the hands of his fascist jailers is freed from prison by a band of revolutionaries and joins them as they attack Big Brother’s headquarters, take him into custody, and go on TV to tell their comrades that they’re free at last.
You don’t remember that ending? Of course you don’t. It never happened—unless you count Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil,” a bleakly funny riff on “1984,” but even there, the happy ending that seemed to be taking shape is revealed as a hallucination (at least in the director’s cut; the studio tried to chop out all the bleak stuff so viewers would go home believing love conquers all.). Orwell’s classic exploration of the mechanics of authoritarian government was set in a crumbling postwar Britain, but modeled on what happened in the Soviet Union: a people’s revolution driven by lofty ideals of communism seized power, only to be corrupted into a dictatorship that claimed to serve the citizens but only served its leaders.
The novel ended unhappily because it was a cautionary tale with elements of horror that was meant to leave readers in (supposed) democracies feeling sick inside, and more alert to the possibility that this could happen in their country. The dozens of adaptations that have been made over the decades (including three features) respected Orwell’s intent, and didn’t dilute, much less outright change, his coal-black finale.
“Animal Farm” hasn’t been so lucky. There have been three versions to date: a 1954 animated film, a 1999 “Babe”- style adaptation that used animatronic animal puppets, and this new one by actor-turned-director Andy Serkis (aka the once-and-future Gollum). The first two films junked Orwell’s ending, in which barnyard animals overthrew their oppressors only to see their revolution undermined from within by the malevolent pig Napoleon, and their collectivist government replaced with another version of the dictatorship they’d just toppled.
The 1954 version added a step: the revolutionaries whose government was stolen from them overthrow the second dictatorship, too. The 1999 version, made for US television just eight years into the post-Cold War era, tried to mirror history by depicting Napoleon’s government ultimately declining and collapsing, like the totemic statue in the poem “Ozymandias.” But it felt like a cop-out. Whatever was intended, the message was something like, “Time will set things right,” which is defeatism disguised as wisdom.
Alas, instead of “third time’s the charm,” we have “bad luck runs in threes.” In a departure from his previous aesthetic—motion-capture performances with animated “skins” over the actors—Serkis’ version of “Animal Farm” is mostly a rollicking comedy adventure full of wisecracking animals, with slick-looking s CG animation and goofy but fitfully amusing banter. And yes, it offers another happy ending: the stalwart hero of Orwell’s novella, the piglet acolyte Lucky (voiced by Gaten Matarazzo), overthrows Napoleon, voiced by Seth Rogen, and declares that from now on, all animals will indeed be considered equal. No backsies.
Serkis’ movie isn’t terrible. It has elements that work quite well, particularly the casting of Rogen, who often plays hard-partying teddy bear types, as the big baddie, which freshens up the character. But the total package pales in comparison to other parables of human nature set in barnyards—including 1995’s “Babe” and two solid versions of “Charlotte’s Web.” But this one suffers in comparison because the look and feel are too plug-and-play, and the end product lacks conviction and comes across as pandering to children so the movie can present itself as family entertainment. This movie feels like it was funded with the promise that it would entertain and uplift children without disturbing them.
Perhaps the persistent failure of these adaptations is that we’ve been trained to expect films about animals to be harmless and reassuring, so as not to disturb children. We don’t want to inconvenience parents by impelling them to tell their weeping tots about Marx, Trotsky, and Stalin. Orwell did not intend “Animal Farm” as light entertainment.
