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Animal Farm (1999)

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  • Allegedly Optimistic Ending: The film tried to update the ending to reflect the fall of the USSR by showing a new family buying the farm and the animals vowing to do things right this time. Given the actual history of the post-communist Russia, especially under Putin's reign, it's hard to look at this ending as anything but out of touch. And the animals are still going to be eaten. Not to mention that Jones wasn't presented any more sympathetically than the pigs were, and the original book is a critique of capitalism just as much as it is of communism. There is also the fact that Jones is clearly an allegory for the Tsar. This further makes the ending of the movie bizarre, as it gives it a strange pro-absolute monarchy bend. Of course, given the cyclical nature of tyranny at the core of the book, maybe that is the message.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: When Jesse and Benjamin attempt to warn Boxer that he's being taken to the glue factory and certain death, they get no response from him. Was this because he simply didn't hear them? Or did he lose the will to live?
  • Broken Aesop: The film falls into this due to Adaptational Karma. The original book is principally about the problem of the Full-Circle Revolution, and how any authority that places itself above the workers while taking the lion's share of their efforts is wrong, whether they identify as capitalist or communist. Humans, in the world of the book, embody the exploitative ruling class, and any attempt by the animals to emulate humans is treated as a sign of placing themselves above their kin. The book ends with the pigs becoming no different from humans, bullying and killing the other animals to make their money. However, the film decides to instead end with the farm being bought by another family of humans after the pig's organization collapses, and this is treated as a happy ending, because the new family will obviously run it much better than the pigs. So it turns out that an exploitative ruling class is perfectly fine, after all; just so long as it's a friendly exploitative ruling class. Indeed, considering that the farmer in the book was a clear metaphor for the Russian monarchy, apparently the movie is saying that the Soviet Union could have been fixed just fine if they'd reinstated the Tsars. Given when it was made, this may have been altered to reflect the fall of the USSR and capitalist Russian Federation supplanting it (along with the other post-Soviet states), which was viewed favorably by most at the time (after Putin became effective dictator, many people's views soured).
  • Complete Monster: Napoleon was one of the leaders of the animal revolution on Manor Farm, only to reveal himself to be even worse than the humans he overthrew. Napoleon steals Jessie's newborn puppies and has them raised to be his servants. When he and his rival Snowball come into conflict about how to run the farm, Napoleon has Snowball chased out and steals his plan to build a windmill. Napoleon sets up pigs as the rulers of the farm and manipulates other animals into back-breaking labor and starvation with the help of his right-hand Squealer. Napoleon has the animal commandments changed so he and other pigs can trade with humans and enjoy their luxuries. When hens refuse to give up their eggs for trade, Napoleon has them starved and threatens death to any animal who attempts to feed them. Napoleon continues to spread propaganda and kill any animal that opposes him. When the horse Boxer overworks himself to build the windmill to the point of being unable to work anymore, Napoleon has him sent to the slaughterhouse.
  • Fridge Brilliance: You can get a lot of meaning from the keys that each of the film's three songs are in.
    • "Beasts of the World" modulates between D Minor and F Major (which are relative keys, meaning they share the same notes.) The use of both a minor and major key creates a bittersweet tone, showing that the animals' situation is grim, but Old Major wants to give them hope for the future.
    • "Glorious Leader Napoleon" is primarily in D Minor. You could say that Napoleon is trying to "imitate" Old Major by having his song share a key with Old Major's song. However, since there is no major key, that's hinting that Napoleon is not the benevolent leader that Old Major was, and he's only going to get worse.
    • "Song of the Grateful Duck" is in E Minor. Napoleon is no longer hiding his cruelty, but rather, ramping it up, since E Minor is a whole step up from D Minor.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The movie ends on a somewhat hopeful note that something better will rise from the ashes of Animal Farm, reflecting the cautious optimism widely held about post-Soviet Russia at the time. In the same year that the movie came out, Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia and eventually led the country down the road to a new kind of belligerent authoritarianism (if not outright fascism).
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the film, Patrick Stewart (Napoleon) and Kelsey Grammer (Snowball) are heated, ultimately fatal rivals fighting on the same side of a war for their oppressed species' right to survive. In X-Men: The Last Stand, their respective characters (Professor X and Beast) are in very similar circumstances, only in a much more harmonious relationship.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Farmer Jones in this version. Sure, he has plenty of vices (alcoholism, cheating on his wife, etc.) in addition to carelessly choosing not to feed the animals and later blowing up their windmill. However, his demeanor is that of a pathetic Extreme Doormat who keeps getting bullied by everyone around him, from his wife to Pilkington, and that's before the animals revolt and kick him and his wife out of their own farm (and home).
    • Farmer Jones' wife as well. She is pretty abrasive to Jones, making him a Henpecked Husband, but it seems like she had nothing to do with Jones' apathetic treatment of the animals. If anything, she seemed to care more for them than he did since she tried to get him to feed the animals, and it’s hard not to understand her position a bit considering Jones IS a neglectful drunkard whose poor management of the farm was already causing them money troubles. It was not at all her fault that she got kicked out of the farm, and left homeless, along with him.
  • Narm: Squealer's voice cracks a lot at the beginning of the "Glorious Leader Napoleon" song, so much so that he's barely on key for the first couple notes. This makes it sound a bit ridiculous for a propaganda song that's meant to make a dictator look powerful and good. He does get better as the song goes on, singing on key and very passionately. This is only true for the movie version of the song, though. The soundtrack version uses a completely different recording of Ian Holm's voice. This version lacks the voice cracks at the beginning, but it also lacks the more emotion-filled performance later on, and as a result, it doesn't have the same punch that the movie version does.
  • Narm Charm: The Grateful Duck's song is oddly silly even though it's meant to be a brainwashing device, but the way the duck sings and the lyrics (helped by the music) make it a deeply chilling moment. Not to mention that the backup singers are sheep who sing while frantically running around, creating a terrifying image of "sheeple" who supposedly need a dictator like Napoleon to calm them.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Plenty of it, especially for a film about talking animals.
    • There's Old Major's death, where he's hit by a stray discharge of Jones' shotgun and stumbles backwards out of the barn, flailing through the air until he breaks his neck hitting the ground. And then it's followed by a sequence showing Jones chopping up Old Major's corpse, presumably for pork (to avoid wasting the meat, but it's horrifying all the same).
    • Later, there's all the Kangaroo Courts where Napoleon has animals sentenced to death for minor acts that displeased him.
    • Jessie's puppies showing up as aggressive (and literal) attack dogs, raised as Tykebombs to do Napoleon's bidding and enforce his will. Eventually they get a Heel–Face Turn, but that's right at the very end of the film.
    • The whole song sequence honouring Napoleon that turns into something out of Triumph of the Will, with banners unfurling all over the farm and geese flying overhead to aircraft-like sounds as Napoleon proclaims the revolution "over" and the farm devoted to militarization.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • While the majority of the animal characters were created through rather impressive animatronics, there were several, such as the rat, that were created through CGI that was incredibly poor, even for the time.
    • Old Major ends up looking rather stiff and robotic, especially during his death scene.
  • Tear Jerker: Boxer getting sent to the glue factory, arguably even more so than in the 1954 movie. Instead of realizing what was going on and thrashing around in fear, we simply see Boxer muster up his last remaining strength to walk into the wagon, and when Jesse and Benjamin chase after him, hysterically screaming to Boxer that he's being sent to his death, they get no response. The implication is that Boxer either didn't hear them and believed in Napoleon until his last breath, or he did realize what was going on but at this point had simply lost the will to fight for his life.
  • Ugly Cute: Old Major. He is just as chubby as in the animated adaptation, with Eyes Always Shut, big, floppy ears that are constantly bouncing, and a little, wet snout.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The animatronics used to help portray the animals are quite impressive. A given, as they were made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

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