Animal Farm Movie Review 1999

Orwell's political satire is given the "Babe" treatment in this live-action version. Drunken farmer Mr. Jones (Postlethwaite) has his power overthrown by his barnyard animals, who in turn are ruled by the farm's pig population. Only porker Napoleon (Stewart) turns out to be as big a tyrant as his human counterpart. Far beyond the scope of children, this retelling is clunky and its propaganda value has certainly come and gone. (Orwell was originally satirizing Stalinist Russia.)

Distribution

Hallmark Home Entertainment, 6100 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 1400, Los Angeles, CA 90048, Phone: (213)634-3000, Fax: (213)549-3760, Remarks: Lainie Handelman, Mktg.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 91 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Books to Film: George Orwell, Talking Animals, Pigs, Farm Livin', Satire & Parody

Screenplay

Martyn Burke, Alan Janes

Cast

Pete Postlethwaite

Cinematography

Mike Brewster

Director

John Stephenson

Music

Richard Harvey

Other

Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Ormond, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Scofield, Peter Ustinov