Animal Farm - Film Review

Rachel.J

Ms.Outten

ENG2U

Nov.12. 2016            

                    “Animal Farm” Film Review

“Animal Farm” is an outstanding animation movie, an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1944 novel of the same name. It is directed by John Habs and Joy Batchelor and dubbed by Gordon Health and Maurice Denham in 1954. “Animal Farm” is based on a splendid fable story, which develops around human beings—Mr.Jones, Pilkington, Frederick and animals like the pigs named Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, and the horse called Boxer. The movie presents the novel in a dramatic way that enhances the readers’ understanding of the story. “Animal Farm” is full of insights into the Russian Revolution. As a political fable, it is really worth the audiences’ time to watch and think about it.

The story is set in an imaginary farm called “Manor Farm” in England. The major conflict at the beginning of the story is the animals versus Mr. Jones(the farm owner). However, with a sophisticated plan created by the animals, they overturn their human oppressors and create a new society that share some feature with an ideal “animalism”. After establishing their own community, the pigs begin to take control of the society since they are the smartest animals among all; with the competition for power between the two leaders, Snowball and Napoleon. The foreshadowing of the farm starts to deviate from the expected path and turns for the worst. The climax of the movie is the time when Napoleon forces Snowball off the farm with his trained squad of dogs and declares to be the only leader and that all decision making will be made only by him. After banishing Snowball, Napoleon continues to impose his supreme power by sending Squealer out to be the spokesman to promote the Animalist principle; also those who do not follow the rules will be murdered inside the community. With Napoleon’s power becoming stronger, the major conflict transfers to the animals versus Napoleon which resembles to the conflict of work-class vs. the authority, and the change in the conflict is the reason for the corruption in the community.. During the falling action, all the animals obey to the pigs, hoping for a better future, but they are too naive to discover the fact that they are being manipulated by the pigs. Whereas at the end of the film, the animals finally find out the truth and starts another rebellion against the pigs.

The actors portray the key character roles efficiently in theirs appearance, sounds and actions. Firstly, the appearance of the main characters in the film are unique. For example, Napoleon gives readers a ferocious and powerful impression, which is put on the screen vividly— a strong, serious and dignified spotted pig. On contrast, Snowball is a kind, lovely pig in the film, who is like a real “snowball” and easy for audiences to tell. In addition, the dubbing speakers make a great contribution to portrayal of the images of characters. For example, the sound of Napoleon is a deep, dark low male voice, with nearly no emotion in it, and his voice sounds like clearing phlegm, the audiences can clearly identified his character without being familiar with the plot. On the other hand, Squealer, also has a remarkable voice, his speech is filled with emotions, and he is very persuasive, which explains why all the animals believe in the duplicitous statements made by Napoleon. What is more, the movie also shows the actions in the original novel well, viewers can feel the determination of the animals when they fight with human beings, also the anger they express for being oppressed by humans. In conclusion, the movie portrays the novel effectively and accurately.

A large amount of film techniques are used in the key scenes, which enrich the setting and theme of the film—revolution is often a transition from an extremism to another extremism. Different shots in the film editing are an example. When all the animals are called together by Old Major, the use of a long shot shows how uniform and united the animals are, which sets off Old Major’s elevated position as well as foreshadowing the rebellion between animal and Mr.Jones. The tracking shot is widely adopted in the windmill building. The single continuous shot records how hard the animals do labor in the farm, which foreshadows the impact of ruined windmill. In regards to editing, the dissolve effect is applied to two images’ alternation frequently during the switch-over of scenes. It organizes the plot clearly and drives the development of story.