Movie Thoughts: Animal Farm (1954)

• Released: December 29, 1954
• Directed by: Joy Batchelor, John Halas
• Running time: 1h 12min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

After having had enough of their old owner mistreating them, the animals of a farm rebel against him and establish the farm as their own. However, the pigs slowly take control and start to act more and more like the previous farmer.

My Thoughts

I have read the George Orwell book, just for the record, however that was so long ago that I legitimately do not remember much about it. So please don't expect me to talk about this movie's accuracy to the book: I legit don't know.

But as a movie, it's...okay. I didn't enjoy it all that much, but I wouldn't call it bad, either. It is obvious propaganda, but as a movie in and of itself it's decent enough. We get a lot of characters, some we get invested in and some we despise, and the story is pretty straightforward and told competently. The animation isn't perfect but solid enough, especially for how old this film is.

If I do have a complaint (though this is an obvious product of the times), it's that this movie legit just has no female characters. At least, none that are named and/or have a speaking role. It's all dudes in this movie and that just felt a bit stupid to me. There are technically female characters, such as the cows or the hens, but they just don't get any presence of note. So yes, obviously I know that this is a product of the times (and this movie had barely any actors to begin with), but still, it's very annoying to watch this in a modern day and see not a single woman get even one line. 

I don't know, I don't think this is a bad movie but I just didn't really enjoy watching it. It wasn't boring or anything, and it is competent on a movie-making level, but it didn't click with me or anything. Maybe that's just me. It does get pretty positive overall ratings on IMDb and Letterboxd, so maybe it's just not for me, I guess.