Home :: DVD :: Television :: General  

A&E Home Video
BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV
General

HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series
WGBH Boston
Animal Farm

Animal Farm

List Price: $24.95
Your Price: $22.46
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Animal farm the cartoon
Review: Animal farm was a book written over 60 years ago by George Orwell. It has been converted into a child's cartoon film. It is a fable, which re-enacts the Russian Revolution, swapping humans for animals.
It starts off with a speech by a pig called major, which represents Karl Marx. He influences the animals about rebelling against humans. Eventually the animals drive Mr Jones (who represents the former Russian leaders, the Tsars) off the farm, in order to start a communist community. Like most revolutions, people start to give themselves leadership. Eventually, the leaders start to turn into the former leaders, and things became as they started off.
However, the film takes a twist at the end. The animals fight back against the pig leaders. This was a very bad idea because it destroys the connection with the Russian Revolution. It loses its effects.
However, the sense of satire still remains because pigs represent the communist leaders, and pigs are usually unpleasant creatures.
The film is only good as far as an entertaining cartoon, but after reading the book, I find it a very bad comparison as many major characters and parts are missed out, and the ending fails to follow that of the Russian revolution.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Animal Farm is a good Deep Movie
Review: George Orwell makes you think about the struggles of man & animal alike with this before its time book & movie.

Is big brother watching?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Then and Now
Review: I have never seen the movie before (the review is more for the book since I didn't see the movie), but I read the book. Before you can read the reviews, you must remember that this book was written during the Age of Communism, and the movie also set during the Age of Communism. So, before reading or watching Animal Farm, just remember.....the book and movie take place in the past, and that is how they should be watched/read.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Animal Farm the cartoon
Review: The book animal farm was written over 60 years ago and has recently been placed in the top 100 books ever, has been turned into a cartoon for the children's film of the same name. The book was famous for mocking the Russian revolution. This is no longer visible in the film And in the eyes of a child they would have no idea what it is linked with. The film does follow the book for most of it, but the director has certain parts. He has tried to improve the plot, but after reading the book, it somewhat makes the plot worse.
This is a reasonable conversion, children and people who haven't read the book will find it an average cartoon but for people that have read it will find it disappointing because the main characters are missing, main parts are missing, and some parts are randomly changed.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A brilliant book portrayed by a poor film
Review: The film animal farm was based on the novel by George Orwell. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the way that you could relate the animals to characters in the Russian Revolution. Orwell used a very strong form of satire by comparing the leaders of the Russian Revolution to pigs.

The film disappointed me, as I was expecting the film to match or better the book. This is because of the poor animation, which was, I think, meant for children. If you haven't read the book before the film I don't think you could understand various parts in the film such as when the animals sang 'Beasts of England', you could not interpret what they were singing so this looked particularly silly.

Some characters had been left out in the film such as Molly and Clover. This didn't really have any impact on the film but it would have been interesting to see what the director could have done to interpret the characteristics of the animals.

The film was similar to a fable if not one. The animals had human characteristics, they could talk and as the film progressed became more and more like humans. In my opinion the moral of the story is that you cannot reach utopia instead when the animals tried they created dystopia.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Still Impressive Animation of Orwell's Political Satire
Review: What you see in this animated film is animals, but not necessarily friendly to humans. Or, they could be even sometimes very cruel to fellow creatures. But of course they should be, because this is an animated film version of George "1984" Orwell's biting satire of Stalinism. On the backcover you can see that this one "May NOT Suitable for Kids." I would say, "never." If you still insist, buy 1999 version of the same title, adapted with images friendlier to kids. This older one may scare many of children, who expect every animal should live in peace.

Possibly, however, Wednesday of the Addams Family, who heartily disliked Disney productions, would love this film. Certainly this film has the same unusual kind of humor and wit as that family has. The story of "Animal Farm" concerns the rise and fall of the titular "Animal Farm" (formerly "Manor Farm") where poor animals were once tormented by tyranny of Mr. Jones, but no longer. Under the guidance of Old Major, the Great Pig, they made a revolution against humans, and succeeded. So, the liberated animals start their own life, with a pig Napoleon as their leader, but alas! they are not as wise as they thought.

As you can judge from the short running time that barely exceeds 70 minutes, this 1954 adaptation of George Orwell political satire leaves a lot of its original book behind, intent on drawing out its essential spirit. Complaining viewers would find the change of the ending very lamentable, but the deed is done, and half a century ago, so let's take it as a kind of testimony of the time it was made when the Cold War is a very realistic thing.

The most recommendable thing about the film would be its techinical aspects. The film is made with traditional skills of animation, and considering the time it was created, the images still retain its original power. Though it often reminds us of Disney's achievement (such as "Fantasia" or "Pinochio"), and probably owes much to this master of animation films, "Animal Farm" manages to impress us considerably, with its detailed descriptions of animals' movements. The sly humor here and there is effective, and most of all, the film doesn't pull its punch when the story requires it to show the deaths of animals (though this part is exactly the reason this film may not be suitable for children).

The character designs are not inviting, with their faces that are far from cute and pretty, but this version of "Animal Farm" deserves our attention, not only for readers of George Orwell, but also for those who are interested in the animation history.


<< 1 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates