Animal Farm On Film

[Comrade Marcel]

Just curious what people think of the the 1954 animated version of Animal Farm Vs. the 1999 live action version Vs. the Book.

Here is description of the two films from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_farm#Film_versions)

* 1954 animated film - The book was the basis of an animated feature film in 1954 (Britain's first full-length animated movie), directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and quietly commissioned by the American CIA, which softened the theme of the story slightly by reducing the role of Moses, the character representing religion, and adding an epilogue, that occurs immediately after the novel's iconic concluding imagery is depicted, where the other animals successfully revolt against pigs.

* 1999 live-action film - There was also a live action film directed by John Stephenson, with voices by Kelsey Grammer as Snowball, Patrick Stewart as Napoleon, and Ian Holm as Squealer. Despite a few differences (such as completely different songs), the plot occasionally resembles that of the book. The film diverges from the book with an additional epilogue in which Jesse the dog and several animals escape and return years later to a post-Napoleon era Animal Farm. This is an update which could be seen as an analogy to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Here's the torrents:

Animated 1954 film (http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?TorrentID=1509)

Live action film 1999 (http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?TorrentID=1511)

[Comrade Marcel]

I will also add the live action version soon. ;)

[Comrade Marcel]

So in the 1954 version, the raven is played down so as not to offend religion, and in the end there is a sort of optomistic outcome (the animals take back the farm), well in the novel it ends basically with Napoleon clinking champaign glasses.

In the 1999 live action version, the same narrator from Stalin (1991) is used and her voice gets sooooo annoying. But the animals are kewl. The dog is sort of the main dessenter (can't remember the name at the moment) whereas in the animated one it was Benjamin the donkey (can't remember about the book). At the end many of the animals exile, and the farm is destroyed in a storm. They later return. A new family (a new era for the farm with a "bright" future) :rolleyes:

Anyways, I've always wondered in what happend to snowball. In the animated one the dogs kill him. I'm pretty sure in the book he actually got away, and he also gets away in the live action film. It would have been nice if napleon sent a seagul to peck his head out, symbolizing the icepicking of Trotsky. ;) :lol:

[Rollo]

I just noticed it looks like you are wearing red suspenders.

[Comrade Marcel]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12 2006, 03:59 PM
I just noticed it looks like you are wearing red suspenders.
Yeah, with hammer and sickles on em'. ;)

[Trent Steele]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 12 2006, 03:54 PM
A new family (a new era for the farm with a "bright" future)
Actually, look closely at the family that drives into the farm. Notice how he looks like Clinton? It's symbolic of capitalism being a new hope for the farm :angry:

[Comrade Marcel]

Originally posted by Trent Steele+Jul 12 2006, 05:54 PM--> (Trent Steele @ Jul 12 2006, 05:54 PM)
Comrade [email protected] 12 2006, 03:54 PM
A new family (a new era for the farm with a "bright" future)
Actually, look closely at the family that drives into the farm. Notice how he looks like Clinton? It's symbolic of capitalism being a new hope for the farm :angry: [/b]
Haha, yeah the family does have an "ameriKana" look to them, with the car, clothing and all. I have heard some other people say they look somewhat like the Clintons. I'll look closely next time. :D

[bezdomni]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12 2006, 03:59 PM
I just noticed it looks like you are wearing red suspenders.
What the hell does that have to do with anything? :blink:

I saw the 1954 version in school. I think it was kind of crappy, just in general. The message was all wrong and the animation sucked. :P

[Comrade Marcel]

Originally posted by clownpenisanarchy+Jul 13 2006, 05:41 AM--> (clownpenisanarchy @ Jul 13 2006, 05:41 AM)
[email protected] 12 2006, 03:59 PM
I just noticed it looks like you are wearing red suspenders.
What the hell does that have to do with anything? :blink:

I saw the 1954 version in school. I think it was kind of crappy, just in general. The message was all wrong and the animation sucked. :P [/b]
Well, the animation was pretty good for 1954. Aside from the fact they watered down the aspect of religion (the bird being on the farmer's side, then making peace with the pigs later) the ending is more optimistic, if you look at it from the Trotskyite POV, the animals overthrow "Stalinism".

I have said before, many times, that in most of these "Stalinists" societies there is no way that they could last/lasted as long as they have if they were really as bad as the bourgeois critics and Trots want us to believe. If it were, the people would take action. This actually changes Orwell's vision, IMO. I stand by the conclusions of Anthony Burgess, RS2K and myself that Orwell really did see revolution as hopeless and the proletarian as incapable.

The new version, actually stays with Orwell's general POV. Well the ending changes, the message is still the same: revolution is useless. In Orwell's novella the pigs win. They stay in power; well in this version the message is that even though the conditions suck ass, it's still better to suffer then to try to change it.