‘Animal Farm’ review: Director Andy Serkis softens George Orwell classic for family animation

Dir: Andy Serkis. Canada/UK/USA. 2025. 96mins

Originally conceived by George Orwell as a satirical allegory for the Russian Revolution and the subsequent struggles of the USSR under the rule of Joseph Stalin, Animal Farm’s political ire is redirected in this lively CG-animated adaptation directed by Andy Serkis. Rather than Stalinism, Serkis takes aim at greed, rapacious consumerism and corporate corruption and malfeasance. There’s also a timely dig at populist political movements.

The look of the picture is romantic and inviting

Animal Farm has previously been adapted into a 1954 animation and a 1990 live-action feature, and this version is a long-gestating passion project for Serkis; it was originally touted as his feature directorial debut back in 2012. Serkis has subsequently directed four films, including adaptation Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle, and he’s currently in development on The Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum. His Animal Farm, which has been adapted by Nicholas Stoller, takes a family-friendly approach, filtering Orwell’s dark vision through a peppy, kid-centric colour palette. But while it may struggle to satisfy diehard Orwell purists, the film still takes a political stance and delivers an emphatic message celebrating equality and the power of the collective – albeit one which permits us a little more hope than was present in Orwell’s 1945 novella.

The casting of a riffing, wise-cracking Seth Rogen in the role of pig-villain (and sometime Stalin surrogate) Napoleon sets the comic tone and should be a key selling point for the film (likewise the presence of Kieran Culkin in the cast as Napoleon’s grovelling lackey Squealer). Given the marketing challenges frequently presented by more adult-themed animations, it’s likely to be a canny commercial decision, even if the degree of cuteness and adorable character design can feel a little incongruous given the nature of the source material.

The basics of the story remain: the animals of Manor Farm rebel against the drunken farmer and the bank employee sent to foreclose the property. They take over the running of the farm as a collective. And for a while at least, all is harmonious. A set of rules is established to ensure an equitable balance of labour and status. But then greed for power and resources kicks in, and Napoleon the pig seizes control.

One of the main alterations to the original story is the addition of the central character of Lucky (Gaten Matarazzo), a bright young piglet who finds his allegiances torn between gentle, progressive liberal pig Snowball (Laverne Cox), who nurtured Lucky’s intellect and taught him to read, and the divisive rabble-rouser Napoleon. Positioning himself as a father figure, Napoleon lures Lucky with a sense of belonging. Sure, all animals are equal, reasons Napoleon but, when it boils down to it, pigs need to stick together.

There’s more than a whiff of far-right rhetoric to Napoleon’s theory of species superiority and in the anti-intellectualism that he uses as a weapon against Snowball. And Stoller and Rogen sneak in a few Trumpian flourishes during Napoleon’s informal weaving addresses to the other animals. Elsewhere, the farm’s human neighbour Freida Pilkington (Glenn Close), an industrial agriculture magnate who covets the land that the animals now cultivate, drives something that looks uncannily similar to a Cybertruck and spies on the farm using high-tech drones. 

The look of the picture is romantic and inviting. There’s a warm, honeyed glow to the light, a permanent pink-tinged magic hour that makes the farm look like a place where nothing bad could ever happen. And that’s perhaps the point – the story is viewed through the eyes of Lucky, a naïve but inherently decent idealist who wants to believe the best about his fellow beasts, even as Napoleon is selling off Lucky’s best friend, Boxer the horse (Woody Harrelson), to a glue factory. Serkis’ version of Animal Farm is a coming-of-age picture that argues that our best hope for a better future rests with the younger generation.