Rating: 
Summary: DASHEIKS 2 CENTS
Review: I thought this movie was a pretty good adaptation of the book but in my opinion if a movie does not resemble the book in every frame and aspect it fails. "Animal Farm" the movie is a failure. Old major looked rediculous. He may as well had been played by Kermit the frog. And to my disapointment, the ending of the book where a card game takes place and cheating is discovered (my favorite part of the novel ) is just left out and replaced with a happy ending. DREADFUL!!! "Animal Farm" is one of my all time favorite books and I have been waiting for a movie adaptation ever since I read it in high-school. I've probably read it at least 3 times. I always said I'd prefer an animated cartoon version instead of a live action one. When I saw the "Babe" movie I became alright with the prospect of a film created with this technology. I have been betrayed and in my opinion so has George Orwell. This film is an UTTER disappointment!
Rating: 
Summary: utterly appaling
Review: This film shouldn't be called animal farm - it's not the same story. To change the ending, a critical point in the book, destroys the story and its meaning. Watching the end of this film I was filled with disgust. Don't bother with the film - read the book instead.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionist Ruination of a Classic
Review: They destroyed Orwell. I can't believe it. These people actually destroyed that great author. Did they do it deliberately? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that out.
I think perhaps they did. After all, they completely altered the ending. I mean completely, 180 degrees, different from Orwell's pure and clear intention. There ought to be a law against that. Defamation, slander, anything.
What if Orwell wasn't writing about Russian communism, persay, but rather, about the nature of totalitarianism in general (which the world and Russia and this country are NOT rid of, by the way!)? Have these myopic movie-makers never considered that? Obviously not.
And they also made a trite, saccharine-sweet movie. Thus, they made the great Orwell seem trite. How dare they?!
Rating: 
Summary: Once It was called Manor Farm...
Review: This movie is well produced. Mostly fake animals were used except for Jessie and Pincher and the puppies. When Jones and his wife are ambushed by the fed-up farm animals, things start getting crazy. The pigs take over and make rules such as "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" or "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets". The farm was once called Manor Farm but the animals changed it to Animal Farm. Every body doesn't realize pigs' horrible beavier and their cruelness except the Border Collie named Jessie. The pigs tell the animals to make a windmill. Boxer the stallion works hard but one day a wheel on his cart breaks and he's hurt. The pigs say he's going to the Vet but he goes to the Glue Factory. This part just makes you want to cry your eyes out. The rest is just chaos. The movie is very upsetting. The movie was better than the book.
Rating:
Summary: Animal Farm
Review: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others," is what is inscribed on the wall of the barn by the end of Animal Farm. This motto can, unfortunately, be applied to most forms of government. The book Animal Farm really makes you think about what's going on in the world, and indeed your own country. While reading the book I was disgusted but the greed of the pigs, and I felt very sorry for the animals living in brainwashed poverty.
Although I didn't much like any of the pigs, my least favourite character in Animal Farm was Squealer. He represented Stalin's propaganda during his dictatorship in Russia. (Propaganda is control of the media.) Squealer was the one in charge of brainwashing the other animals so that they would remain Napoleon's (the leader of Animal Farm) slaves. He used lies as his technique. Every time an animal would start to think for them self, Squealer would jump in and say some fancy words until they believed what he wanted them to. This happens many times, such as when Clover the horse is trying to remember the original Commandments, and Squealer, who had changed them, comes along and tells her she is remembering incorrectly.
In Animal Farm, I really like how George Orwell uses animals to comically depict the greed of the life-styles of human beings. The wealthy and powerful are depicted as pigs, and we all know the reputation that comes with that animal.
George Orwell is a great writer with a very worldly view. He uses satires such as Animal Farm to open people's minds to the problems with society.
I didn't learn any thing new from reading this book, but it did enhance my desire to think about the world around me.
I thought the ending of Animal Farm, when the pigs really start to resemble humans is typical of what happens when someone gains too much power. Greed changes people just as it changed the pigs, which is why totalitarianism is such a bad thing.
The only question that was left unanswered in my mind was what the animals are now going to do with the new knowledge that they are being lied to. Will they put up with this life of poverty? Or, will they start a rebellion of their own?
I would recommend this book to a friend because a lot can be learned from this piece of literature.
I would read other works by George Orwell because if they are like Animal Farm, then it is likely that they will be well thought out and intelligent, with important things to realize about society.
So read Animal Farm, it can really open your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant adaptation of "Animal Farm" plus historical ending
Review: This movie, which puts George Orwell's brilliant book "Animal Farm" in action using real life actors and puppets, is true to the book's message and the actual history of the movie. First of all, let me say that I loved the book. It is a horrifying and thought-provoking tale of what happens when power corrupts and a utopia becomes hell. This movie does so much for Orwell's message: the visualization of the animal takeover and eventual decline into totalitarianism is fleshed out in horrific imagery on pitch with Orwell's fairy tale. While some reviewers have complained about the seeming "happy ending" of the story, I enjoyed how the filmmakers took a look at the fall of the pig rule: just as the USSR fell when the foundations broke down and the walls crumbled, so does Manor Farm, or the Animal Farm, that the animals worked so hard for. It's not a happy ending aimed to manipulate the audience's outlook after the movie: it's the real life ending that Orwell never got to see. This movie does the book justice not only by visually recreating the world of Animal Farm, but also by re-enforcing the horror in all of us of what "could" happen and what power does. My only qualm about this movie (and it must not be very big because I still gave it 5 stars) was that Old Major's puppet was too hideous and overdone to make the audience really take him seriously. Read the book and, if you loved it, watch this wonderful adaptation of the story that we all need to learn from.
Rating:
Summary: Not For Kids: Film Adaptation of Political Fable by Orwell
Review: "Animal Farm" is far from "Babe." Don't even get them confused, letting kids be shown this one. Even the sequel of "Babe" has certain amount of darker moments (when the titular pig is chased around by other animals on the street), but compared with this, it was only a picnic. Whoever thought of making Orwell's political satire a movie for kids? Or is it made for adults? I don't know.You know, the story is about a farm run by Mr. Jones (Pete Postlewaite), drunk and abusing animals. The animals there, no longer submissive, stand up (actually some of them do -- see a pig climb up a ladder!) under the guidance of the old pig Major (who gets accidentally shot ... unnecessary violence). They succeed, chasing away the humans, but what they don't know is that lofty rules they establish at the beginning of revolution -- including "all animals are equal" -- can be interpreted differently with a slight grammatical change. The story loses its meaning without knowledge of Stalinism, but how many kids are aware of that, I am at a loss to guess. Probably they understand, but if the studio thinks of the same target audience as "Babe," they are fatally wrong. However, it seems that they also don't know what to do. Some part of the story is modified (scenes of Jones' abusing animals, for instance) perhaps kids in mind, but still the film remains dark, even scary for little kids (don't show that raw meat, will you?). For adults, the film looks a little better; after all they know what the film really wants to say. The film is pretty faithful to the book, but enthusiastic readers of Orwell will still complain some liberties done to the film. Ironically, the film gets interesting when they do take that liberty; I enjoyed the scenes of a propaganda film that reminds of Chaplin's "The Dectator", but as a whole the film is just a passable one. That's because I already know the content of the book. If you don't know that, I recommend that you read the book later,and see the film first. Many vocal talents appear, but not every one is given a good chance to be impressive. Patrick Stewert's Napolen is outstanding, but overall I have an impression that the actors' voices are not fully used. Henson Studio's animals are not so bad, but the murky images of the film sometimes damages their effect. At least, I can say they are not as lovely as the pig you see in "Babe." This is the second rendition of George Orwell's political fable, after the British animated film made in the 1950s. The new one is from Hallmark Entertainment that has been making good TV films with good cast from the both sides of the Atlantic, but this time, it is a misfire.
Rating:
Summary: BAD!!!
Review: The movie is not the same as the book. They change the ending. that was the worst. They also have the dog Jessie narrate it and she doesn't in the book. TERRIBLE!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: It made me sleepy.
Review: I haven't read the book, but I've recently had to watch the film in class. Usually, I like watching movies, but this one made me sleepy. The animals of Manor Farm, owned by Mr. Jones (who is a lazy, ignorant farmer), are hungry and tired. Mr. Jones doesn't know how to take care of his farm animals and farm itself properly. The animals are tired of waiting for Mr. Jones, and decide to take matters into their own hands. Old Major, an old pig, speaks words of wisdom to the animals in the beginning of the film. He represents Karl Marx (or so I believe). But Old Major is soon killed after his speaking of a revolution and the animals are shocked. A group of the other pigs see this as a chance to seize the animals, particularly the new leader, Napolean. The animals drive out the Joneses and Manor Farm is renamed to Animal Farm. At first, life is now dandy for all the animals. They are happy with the changes and believe that Napolean is always right because he is an intelligent pig. Napolean and his pig croonies, however, slowly change their ways. They become more greedy and self-centered. The animals' number one enemy is man and they do not wish to do anything with man. The group of ruling pigs soon appear to act like man does and this appalls the other animals. You can basically guess what happens afterwards. I heard that the ending of the film is not like the book at all, and I was disappointed with the ending.
Rating:
Summary: Insulting! (Warning: Review Contains Spoilers)
Review: I gave this movie 2 stars, because it is clear that a lot of attention and concern was put in the creation of the talking-animal effects. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same for the script. Orwell's "Animal Farm" was a thinly disguised allegory for the failure of the Russian Revolution. By 1999 the USSR was a thing of the past, so the scriptwriters must have felt they had to rework the story for modern times. Perhaps they assumed that their audience had never reads the book, menaing they could change it any way they wanted without opposition. The result was a badly thought out polemic that makes no sense, literally or allegorically. For example, the characters of Moses the Raven (who symbolized religion) and Clover the mare (the refusniks) were written out. As a result the remaining animals seem to be little more than a faceless mob, differentiated by their species but remaining the same ideologically. When the mob starts to object to the pigs' rulership, they are pacified with television. Now, forgiving the supreme arrogance of a made-for-TV movie portraying TV as a pacifying force (I am sure the animals were not watching TNT, the producers of this film), this pivotal plot point makes no sense. Taken literally, how do you explain animals being interested in visual fare made by, for and about humans? Taken allegorically, the TV broadcasts were an outside force beyond the pigs' control, filling the viewers' heads with visions of unpartiotic decadence. Would-be dictators who permitted such things would have to be very foolish indeed. Finally there is the ending, where well-intended humans take over the failing farm and become the benevolent guardians of the animals, with the animals' support. If this was an attempt to paste a happy ending over Orwell's cynical but powerful conclusion, it failed. If taken literally it suggets that the animals' sacrifices and efforts were for nothing, making the movie irrelavent. If it was meant to be taken allegorically, the message is that people should not even try to better their society, they should just submit themselves to benevolent masters an avoid this fuss of self determination (any nominations who said masters should be?). Failed allegory, cheesy animal flick or greedy attempt to cash in on the success of "Babe," the movie version of "Animal Farm" fails on every level.
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