Andy Serkis Adaptation Is an Abomination

There are bad movies, and then there are movies that drain all life and joy out of a person’s soul. The new animated Animal Farm falls firmly into the latter category. Directed by Andy Serkis and adapted from the original George Orwell novel, this is a movie aimed at children but is really for no one with any sense or taste. That includes the kids of the world. Six-year-olds are too savvy for this shit.

The script by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) does indicate that at some point, someone did read the book. The movie begins with the animals of a financially broken farm evicting the humans through force and declaring their sovereignty over it. Initially, they all hold to the creed that “all animals are equal.” Until the farm’s pigs, primarily under the leadership of Napoleon (Seth Rogen), take over control, living high on the hog (sorry not sorry) while the other animals scrape and starve. Until, that is, Serkis and Stoller slap a happy ending and a message about kindness onto the narrative.

That’s right, a happy ending. Apologies for the spoiler, but around fifteen minutes before the end of the movie, Animal Farm does echo Orwell’s chilling final line from the text: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

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Then, a big action-centric climax ensues, as the repressed animals rebel against both pig and man and reclaim the farm for themselves. Lucky (Gaten Matarazzo), one of the few pigs to push back against the new regime, calls out Napoleon with this harsh burn: “The only truthful thing that ever came out of you was a bad smell.” That’s a callback, you see, to an earlier fart joke. Because kids love it when political satires also include fart jokes.

After that comes the moral of the story: Lucky declaring that “no one is always right,” followed by another pig concluding: “You know what is always right? Helping each other.” Cue the closing credits, and a remix of Propellerheads’ “History Repeating.”

This tonal nightmare is being released by Angel Studios, a distributor that largely specializes in faith-oriented projects like Sound of Freedom and The Chosen. On the Angel Studios website, you can find the movie’s official merch shop. Frankly, it’s hard to decide which of its offerings is the most clueless: The MAGA-red “Make Animal Farm Fiction Again” baseball cap, or the theatrical ticket that comes with a special bottle of Boxer’s Workhorse Glue, adorned with a picture of the character voiced by Woody Harrelson with the caption “Gives 110%. Receives 0%.”

Animal Farm merchandise, screenshots via the Angel Studios website

The more I stare at that — “Gives 110%. Receives 0%.” — the less I understand its meaning. Is this meant to be a clever joke about one of the movie’s most tragic characters? It certainly isn’t funny. It definitely makes me feel sad. Which is a pretty good representation of the movie as a whole.

Orwell might have called the book “A Fairy Story” on first publication, but the intended aim was for political commentary over children’s entertainment. Which is part of what makes this take on Animal Farm so skin-crawlingly offensive — the way it so blithely warps the intention of the original tale and its impact. The first attempt to adapt Animal Farm as a movie, in 1954, was partially funded by the CIA as anti-Communist propaganda. That was at least a little close to Orwell’s intended message.

Here, there’s some vague effort to twist Animal Farm’s focus to anti-capitalism, perhaps most explicitly by setting the film in the present day. This means that the pigs fall prey to the temptations of “naughty juice” (Orwell did not refer to alcohol in such cutesy terms) but more importantly shopping sprees, buying tablets and sports cars and all sorts of fancy toys on credit. The attempt to pivot the core message is like grafting a horse’s tail onto a chicken’s ass — unnecessary and deeply awkward in the execution. Especially considering how flimsy a moral it concludes with.

A deep source of frustration here is how solid the voice cast is, with some unconventional choices that are pretty delightful on paper, such as Kathleen Turner as Benjamin the grumpy donkey and Kieran Culkin as Napoleon’s lackey Squealer. Almost everyone turns in serviceable work, though Glenn Close’s evil billionaire character sounds a bit like she’s back in Hillbilly Elegy country, and Seth Rogen does absolutely nothing to make Napoleon separate from his own well-established identity. Rogen has been on a real heater lately thanks to Apple TV’s The Studio, which makes his involvement in this project all the more surreal: “Family-friendly Animal Farm” feels like a joke from his Emmy-winning Hollywood parody.

The animation is theoretically clean and inoffensive, and its rendering of the human world as a high-tech dystopia does feature some visual flair reminiscent of the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. However, the bright color palette and kid-friendly character designs only emphasize how misguided a project this is. Parables about the corrupting influence of power and crude fart jokes can theoretically co-exist, just like animals in the barnyard. However, they need proper shepherding. As opposed to what Serkis did — drive the whole damn movie off a cliff.

Animal Farm herds into theaters on May 1st, 2026. Check out the trailer below.