George Orwell's 1945 novella Animal Farm remains obligatory reading at many schools, but teachers will be hoping their students don't base their essay responses on a new animated interpretation instead of the book.
Written by Nicholas Stoller and directed by Andy Serkis, the new Animal Farm movie turns the cautionary tale into a fantasy comedy adventure with the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi and Glenn Close.
There are out-of-place jokes, new characters, including a piglet named Lucky, and the plot has been changed to make the story a parable about corporate greed. The trailer has just dropped, and people are already calling for literacide to be made a crime. But is the movie really so misjudged? (see our guide to the best animation in 2026 for alternatives).
Animal Farm and cinema have a controversial history. A landmark 1954 movie was Britain's first commercial animated feature and was covertly funded by the CIA as Cold War propaganda (complete with an altered ending). It flopped at the box office but was generally praised for the quality of the animation, with The Guardian reportedly deeming it to be “Disney turned serious”.
Then came Hallmark's 1999 live-action Animal Farm with animatronic animals from by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Some deemed it to be too dark for kids, but again the ending was changed to make it more optimistic.
The latest interpretation has a more modern look with 3D animation but seems set to be even more controversial. If the first movie was “Disney turned serious”, this is Animal Farm turned Disney, complete with one liners.
“They don't even need that windmill anymore; just hook up a generator to George Orwell's grave and he'd power the whole farm,” one person suggests in the comments on the trailer on YouTube.
“This is like if Maus had a scene where some mouse in a gas chamber, looking sheepish at the camera: 'Oops, I think I farted!' Right after he and his friends get gassed,” someone else reckons.
But what's most angering people is the decision to quite radically change in the plot to bring in human antagonists who plot to exploit the farm again. Some see it as a complete inversion of Orwell's intention by making it about capitalism instead of communism.
“The book is like 100 pages, guys. Was it that hard to read,” someone else writes.
I have to agree that the jokes feel off, making the movie feel like parody, but some of the critics also have a simplified idea of what Animal Farm is about. The story was inspired by Stalin's Russia, but it was about how any revolution can be corrupted by the desire for power, resulting in a regime as bad as the one it overthrew.
That applies to any form of totalitarianism, from communism to fascism and Trumpist crony capitalism. Orwell was writing at a particular time after World War 2. With state-promoted communism now barely existing but in name, it might make sense for the movie to connect to a scenario closer to home.
The new Animal Farm will be released in the US on 1 May 2026 – International Workers' Day.
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