Andy Serkis’ ‘Animal Farm’ Review: A Misguided Adaptation of Orwell’s Classic

In my review of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, I noted that if her film were a book report, it would have sparked an uncomfortable parent-teacher conference. Yet I still believed she deserved a passing grade. Andy Serkis’ adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, however, feels like a director who skipped the reading entirely—only to deliver a sanitized, Hollywood-friendly version of the story with all-new characters and a forced happy ending.

Orwell’s 1945 novella is a cornerstone of political literature. It follows farm animals who rebel against their human oppressor, only to see their revolution corrupted by the pigs who seize power. By the end, the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans they overthrew, a grim allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917. The book’s blend of whimsical anthropomorphism and brutal political commentary makes it essential reading for young adults transitioning to more complex texts.

Serkis’ animated adaptation retains much of Orwell’s original plot. The revolution still unfolds, led by the idealistic pig Snowball (Laverne Cox), who is later ousted by the corrupt Napoleon (Seth Rogen). The loyal workhorse Boxer (Woody Harrelson) remains exploited and martyred. Even Orwell’s chilling final image—where the pigs become indistinguishable from humans—is preserved, albeit in a surreal, unsettling form.

Yet this version of Animal Farm doesn’t merely adapt the book; it reshapes it. The film introduces an audience surrogate, a young pig named Lucky (Gaten Matarazzo), who narrates the story’s lessons aloud, as if the audience couldn’t grasp the moral on its own. While this approach borders on condescending, it’s not the film’s fatal flaw.

The bigger issue is the modernization of Orwell’s setting. The pigs now embody modern capitalism’s excesses, with Napoleon explicitly modeled after Donald Trump—appealing to base instincts, spreading baseless claims, and manipulating reality to suit his agenda. His sycophantic sidekick, Squealer (Kieran Culkin), serves as a mouthpiece for propaganda, further diluting the story’s subtlety.

Serkis and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller update Orwell’s text to reflect contemporary politics, but the result feels heavy-handed. The film’s attempt to make the allegory more accessible sacrifices the original’s nuance, leaving a hollow shell of Orwell’s masterpiece. For those expecting a faithful adaptation, this version falls short—replacing depth with didacticism and political commentary with caricature.