Animal Farm (1954 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Animal Farm

| image = Animal Farm (1954).jpg

| caption = Poster{{cite web|url=http://www.animalfarmworld.com/AFW%20Posters.htm|website=Animalfarmworld.com|title=Animal Farm World|access-date=23 September 2017|archive-date=6 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006173606/http://www.animalfarmworld.com/AFW%20Posters.htm|url-status=dead}}

| director = {{Plainlist|

}}

| producer = {{Plainlist|

John Halas
Joy Batchelor

}}

| writer = {{Plainlist|

Joy Batchelor
John Halas
Borden Mace
Philip Stapp
Lothar Wolff

}}

| based_on = {{Based on|Animal Farm|George Orwell}}

| starring = Maurice Denham

| narrator = Gordon Heath

| music = Mátyás Seiber

| studio = Halas and Batchelor

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Associated British-Pathé {{small|(United Kingdom)}}
Louis de Rochemont Associates
Distributors Corporation of America {{small|(United States)}}[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67409/animal-farm TCM.com][https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67409/animal-farm#notes Animal Farm (1955) – Note – TCM.com]

}}

| released = {{film date|df=yes|1954|12|29|New York City|ref1={{cite web | url = http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/04/12/animal-farm-timeline/ | title = Animal Farm Timeline | author = John Reed | date = 2013-04-12 | publisher = The Paris Review | quote = Animal Farm ... premieres in New York City at the chic Paris Theatre, December 29, 1954| access-date = 2016-09-28}}|1955|1|7|London}}

| runtime = 72 minutes

| country = {{ubl|United Kingdom|United States{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=51428|title=Detail view of Movies Page|website=Afi.com|access-date=23 September 2017}}}}

| language = English

| budget = $350,000{{cite news|title='Animal Farm' Took 15 Years To Recoup its $350,000 Cost|work=Variety|date=January 9, 1974|page=77}}

}}

Animal Farm is a 1954 animated drama film directed and produced by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who also made changes to the original script.{{Cite journal|last=Senn|first=Samantha|date=2015|title=All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda|journal=Journal of Strategic Security|publisher=University of South Florida Board of Trustees|volume=8|issue=3|page=151|doi=10.5038/1944-0472.8.3S.1483|jstor=26465253|doi-access=free}} Based on the 1945 novella Animal Farm by George Orwell, the film features narration by Gordon Heath, with the voices of all animals provided by Maurice Denham.[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0219062/ Maurice Denham – IMDb]

The rights for a film adaptation were purchased from Orwell's widow Sonia after she was approached by agents working for the Office of Policy Coordination, a branch of the CIA that dealt with the use of culture to combat communism.{{Cite journal|last=Senn|first=Samantha|date=2015|title=All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda|journal=Journal of Strategic Security|volume=8|issue=3|pages=149–161|doi=10.5038/1944-0472.8.3S.1483|jstor=26465253|issn=1944-0464|doi-access=free}}

Despite initially being a box office flop, taking fifteen years to generate a profit, the film became a staple film shown in classrooms.{{Cite journal|last=Senn|first=Samantha|date=2015|title=All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda|journal=Journal of Strategic Security|volume=8|issue=3|pages=151|doi=10.5038/1944-0472.8.3S.1483|jstor=26465253|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|last=Rodden|first=John|date=September 1991|title=Reputation, Canon-Formation, Pedagogy: George Orwell in the Classroom|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/377460|journal=College English|volume=53|issue=5|pages=505|doi=10.2307/377460|jstor=377460|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Tony|date=October 2003|title=Some Writers are More Equal than Others: George Orwell, the State and Cold War Privilege|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232875972|journal=Cold War History|volume=4|issue=1|page=145|doi=10.1080/14682740312331391774|s2cid=153507299|via=Research Gate}}

Plot

Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner, Mr. Jones. Prize pig Old Major encourages the farm animals to rebel against Jones and take over the farm, teaching them the revolutionary song "Beasts of England" before he dies from a heart attack. When Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals the next morning, Major's successor Snowball leads the animals into the storehouse for food, before leading them into chasing Jones away, renaming the farm "Animal Farm", and destroying the tools of oppression that had been used against them. They decide against living in the farmhouse, though Saddleback boar Napoleon is interested and begins to secretly raise an orphaned litter of puppies as attack dogs while helping himself to Jones's jam storage.

The Seven Commandments of Animalism are written on a barn wall, the most important being "All animals are equal". The animals cooperate to run the farm and produce plenty of food, but the pigs, led by Napoleon and his second-in-command Squealer, avoid physical labor yet claim leadership and special foods such as milk "by virtue of their brainwork". As the winter causes work to slow, Snowball holds a meeting where he promises electric power at the cost of harder work and rationing in the meantime, which Napoleon opposes. When the animals decide to proceed in favour of Snowball, Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball out of the farm before declaring himself leader of Animal Farm and denouncing Snowball as a traitor. He promptly abolishes farm policy meetings, appropriates all decision-making, and advances Snowball's plan for a windmill as his own.

Work begins on the windmill, spearheaded by Boxer the workhorse and Benjamin the donkey who work overtime, while the pigs consume more food and appropriate more luxuries for themselves. When Boxer and Benjamin find the pigs sleeping on beds in the farmhouse, the pigs alter the Commandment "No animal shall sleep in a bed" to "No animal shall sleep in a bed WITH SHEETS". Napoleon starts trading some of the hens' eggs for jam from local businessman Mr. Whymper without their consent, prompting the hens to revolt against the pigs before Napoleon's dogs intervene. To impose his will through fear, Napoleon holds a show trial of the hens, where a sheep and a duck also confess to dissenting; they are all executed by the dogs, and the victims' blood is used to change one of the Commandments into "No animal shall kill another animal WITHOUT CAUSE". Napoleon also bans "Beasts of England", declaring the revolution complete and the dream of Animal Farm realised.

Later, farmers jealous of Mr. Whymper's profits attack Animal Farm. The animals ambush and repel the farmers at the cost of numerous casualties, while Jones drunkenly blows up the windmill with himself inside. The animals are forced to rebuild the windmill, including Boxer, whose injuries and age cause an accident that forces him to retire. Napoleon calls a van to take Boxer away, which Benjamin recognises as being from Whymper's glue factory; he and the other animals try to save him, but to no avail. Squealer delivers a sham eulogy in which he claims Boxer's last words were to glorify Napoleon. The animals see through the propaganda but are driven away by the snarling dogs. That night, the pigs toast to Boxer's memory with whisky they traded for his life.

Several years later, Napoleon rules Animal Farm under a cult of personality and has expanded its influence into neighbouring farms owned by pigs who now act almost identically to humans, walking upright on two legs and wearing clothes. During one pig ceremony, Benjamin and the animals, now famished after constant harsh labour and rationing, are horrified to learn that the pigs have reduced the Commandments to one single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Benjamin spies on the pigs' dinner party, where Napoleon is congratulated for having the hardest-working and lowest-consuming animals in the country, and the pigs toast to a future of similar pig-owned farms everywhere. Realizing Napoleon and the pigs are no different from Jones and the humans, Benjamin rallies the farm animals and others from nearby farms to storm the farmhouse while the dogs are too drunk to respond to. The animals smash through the house and kill Napoleon and his followers as Benjamin stands with triumph.

Production

=Development=

After Orwell died in 1950, his widow Sonia Orwell sold the film rights to Animal Farm to film executives Carleton Alsop and Farris Farr. Unbeknownst to her, they were undercover agents for the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Policy Coordination, which was funding anti-communist art for E. Howard Hunt's Psychological Warfare Workshop. Hunt chose The March of Time newsreel producer Louis de Rochemont and his production company as a front organization for production.{{cite news |author=Karl Cohen |date=7 March 2003 |title=The cartoon that came in from the cold | Culture |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/07/artsfeatures.georgeorwell}} De Rochemont agreed so that he could release "frozen pounds" earned from ticket sales of his previous film Lost Boundaries, which were required to be spent on film productions staged in the United Kingdom.{{Cite web |title=Animal Farm |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/51428-ANIMAL-FARM?sid=380dc3d3-8fa5-4a23-a465-6ed87ab3e1ba&sr=11.616753&cp=1&pos=0 |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=AFI Catalog}}

John Halas and Joy Batchelor were chosen to direct because of their work on documentaries produced by the Marshall Plan and the British Ministry of Information. The CIA also distrusted American animators and illustrators due to the Red Scare and the Hollywood blacklist.{{Cite web |title=How the CIA brought Animal Farm to the screen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11209390/How-the-CIA-brought-Animal-Farm-to-the-screen.html |access-date=2022-10-15 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=21 January 2016 }} Halas and Batchelor hired John F. Reed, the sole involved American, as animation director from The Walt Disney Studio. They also hired a team of eighty animators from The Rank Organisation's disbanded animation division. Despite their background, Halas, Batchellor and the animation crew were kept unaware that the film had been initiated and funded by the CIA."Orwell Subverted", Daniel Leab, p. 11Sibley, Brian. Audio commentary on UK 2003 'Special Edition' DVD release of Animal Farm

=Filming=

Halas and Batchelor were awarded the contract to produce the feature in November 1951, and it was completed in April 1954. Animation was done in London and camera work was done in Gloucestershire. Hunt would later say that the film was "carefully tweaked to heighten the anti-Communist message".{{cite book |last1=Hunt |first1=E. Howard |title=American spy : my secret history in the CIA, Watergate, and beyond |date=2007 |publisher=John WIley & Sons |page=50}} During production, De Rochemont, acting on behalf of the CIA, had the film rewritten from the original novel's plot by Philip Strapp and Lothar Wolf to end with the other animals successfully revolting against the pigs. Batchelor strongly opposed the change, although Halas later defended it. Fredric Warburg, original publisher of the novel and a former MI6 agent, also served as a consultant, suggesting that Old Major be given an appearance similar to Winston Churchill. One proposed scene would have shown Snowball in exile in a "tropical country" where he would be visited by a benign-looking pig, who would suddenly reveal himself to be one of Napoleon's dogs and tear Snowball's throat out, emulating the assassination of Trotsky.Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm, p. 38

The CIA investors were allegedly initially greatly concerned that Snowball was presented too sympathetically in early script treatments and that Batchelor's script implied Snowball was "intelligent, dynamic, courageous". A memo declared that Snowball must be presented as a "fanatic intellectual whose plans if carried through would have led to disaster no less complete than under Napoleon." De Rochemont subsequently implemented these changes, making Snowball "more dominating and officious."Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm, pp. 75–79

The investors also wanted the film to draw a distinction between the "good and bad farmers" with this being attributed to their concern that the film could offend American audiences involved in agriculture. They insisted that Jones should be shown as the only bad farmer, with the other human antagonists being farmhands, and that the film should show more sympathetic farmers shunning Jones. The investors wanted it shown that not all animals had cause to revolt, which resulted in the addition of a sequence where some animals on other farms are seen dismissing news of the rebellion.

Release

The film was rated "U" (Universal), which the British film classification system used for films fit for audiences of all ages.{{cite web|title=Animal Farm|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/animal-farm-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynjk1odc|website=bbfc.co.uk |access-date=2023-11-25}}

Much of the pre-release promotion for the film in the UK focused on it being a British film instead of a product of the Hollywood studios.{{cite web|title=Animal Farm trailer|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGCo5Tva39s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/YGCo5Tva39s |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|website=Youtube| date=14 October 2009 }}{{cbignore}}

Scenes from Animal Farm, along with the 1954 TV programme Nineteen Eighty-Four, were featured in "The Two Winstons", the final episode of Simon Schama's program A History of Britain broadcast June 18, 2002.

Four decades after the release of Animal Farm, Cold War historian Tony Shaw discovered, through looking at archives of the film, that the CIA, who secretly purchased the rights to the film, altered the ending of the film so that the pigs, who represent communists, were overthrown by the other animals on the farm.{{Cite news |date=2020-05-11 |title=How Hollywood became the unofficial propaganda arm of the U.S. military |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/how-hollywood-became-the-unofficial-propaganda-arm-of-the-u-s-military-1.5560575 |access-date=2022-06-06}}

Reception and legacy

Film critic C. A. Lejeune wrote at the time: "I salute Animal Farm as a fine piece of work... [the production team] have made a film for the eye, ear, heart and mind".Lejeune, C. A. "At the films: Pig Business", The Observer, January 1955. Matyas Seiber's score and Maurice Denham's vocal performance have been praised specifically (Denham provided every voice and animal noise in the film). The animation style has been described as "Disney-turned-serious".Author unknown, "Animal Farm on the screen", The Manchester Guardian, 1955. The movie holds {{a or an|{{RT data|score}}}} score at Rotten Tomatoes based on {{RT data|count}} critic reviews.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/animal_farm|title=Animal Farm|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date={{RT data|access date|df=dmy}}}}{{RT data|edit}}

Some criticism was levelled at the altered ending, with one paper reporting, "Orwell would not have liked this one change, with its substitution of commonplace propaganda for his own reticent, melancholy satire".

The film was a box office failure, posting the weakest financial loss in fiscal year 1954, one of the most expensive recessions of all time. Its budget would not be recovered until fifteen years after release.

=Comic strip adaptation=

In 1954, Harold Whitaker, one of the film's animators, adapted the film into a comic strip published in various British regional newspapers.{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/whitaker_harold.htm|title=Harold Whitaker|website=lambiek.net|access-date=23 September 2017}}

=In popular culture=

The band The Clash used an image from the film on their 45-RPM single "English Civil War".{{cite web|url=http://www.endlessgroove.com/issue6/nwgal01.htm |work=Endless Groove |title=An Ezine for record collectors and enthusiasts |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924000458/http://www.endlessgroove.com/issue6/nwgal01.htm |archive-date=24 September 2015}}

=Home media=

Animal Farm was released on Super 8 film in the 1970s, and received several home video releases in the UK and America. American VHS releases were produced by Media Home Entertainment, Vestron Video, Avid Video, Wham! USA Entertainment, and Burbank Video. In the United States, the film was first released to DVD by 2002 by Sterling Entertainment Group, under license by the estate of Halas and Bachelor.{{Citation |title=Animal Farm DVD |url=https://www.blu-ray.com/dvd/Animal-Farm-DVD/270738/ |access-date=2024-03-18}} Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in the UK in 2003. In 2004, Home Vision Entertainment released a "Special Edition" DVD of the movie in the United States, also licensed from Halas and Bachelor, which also included a documentary hosted by Tony Robinson.[https://www.amazon.com/Animal-Farm-Gordon-Heath/dp/B0002ZYDUG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536340682&sr=8-1&keywords=animal+farm+dvd Amazon.com] That same year, Digiview Entertainment released a DVD of Animal Farm, and because the film had received a Super 8 release in the 1970s and possibly due to it being released through Distributors Corporation of America, Digiview had assumed that it was in the public domain. It turned out that Halas and Batchelor's estate still owned the film's copyright, so it filed and won a lawsuit against Digiview, which filed for bankruptcy later that year.

In 2014, a 60th-anniversary Blu-ray was released by Network Distributing in the UK only.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Animal-NON-USA-FORMAT-Blu-Ray-Reg-B/dp/B00UB7ZBUQ|title = Animal Farm| website=Amazon }}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|0047834|Animal Farm}}
[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67409/animal-farm Animal Farm] at the TCM Movie Database
{{Rotten Tomatoes|animal_farm|Animal Farm}}
[http://www.britishpathe.com/video/animal-farm-aka-the-making-of-animal-farm-cartoon Short British Pathe film on the making of the cartoon]
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/11209390/How-the-CIA-brought-Animal-Farm-to-the-screen.html How the CIA brought Animal Farm to the screen]

Category:1954 American animated films

Category:1954 films

Category:1954 drama films

Category:1950s British films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s satirical films

Category:American adult animated films

Category:American animated drama films

Category:Animated films about dogs

Category:Animated films about donkeys

Category:Animated films about horses

Category:Animated films about pigs