Animal Farm was a world-famous story by George Orwell. The avowed democratic socialist was highly critical of the forces of Communism and used a lot of his work to warn against its excesses. Animal Farm was written to be a commentary on the author’s criticisms of Stalin, and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by Orwell’s experiences during the Barcelona May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces, during the Spanish Civil War.
A group of farm animals forms an uprising, rebel against their human owners, and take over their farm. A cunning pig named Napoleon assumes the leadership, and then a set of completely new challenges emerges.
The story was an allegory demonstrating how pure Communism, widely feted by the so-called intellectual classes, was always doomed to fail for wholly predictable reasons.
So, of course, Hollywood has basically failed to understand anything of the source material whatsoever. I mean, seriously, check this out:
Now, you won’t need to be a social scientist or political scholar to have spotted a few of the inherent issues here.
The voice cast includes Seth Rogen as Napoleon, Gaten Matarazzo as Lucky, Kieran Culkin as Squealer, Glenn Close as Freida Pilkington, Steve Buscemi as Mr. Whymper, Laverne Cox as Snowball, Woody Harrelson as Boxer, Jim Parsons as Carl, Kathleen Turner as Benjamin, and Iman Vellani as Puff and Tammy.
Serkis will voice the farm’s owner, Mr. Jones, and the elderly boar named Old Major.
He directs from a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller, and produces alongside Adam Nagle, Dave Rosenbaum, and Jonathan Cavendish.
Animal Farm is released in theaters on May 1st, 2026.
