In something of a triple dare, this adaptation of George Orwell’s political allegory not only challenged Disney hegemony in animated features, it also stayed true to his left-leaning critique of Soviet-style Communism (and totalitarianism in general*) while making an adult-oriented feature-length barnyard cartoon in, of all places, Great Britain. Produced by Louis De Rochemont (of March of Time & Docu-Drama fame), animators Joy Batchelor & John Halas, originally from Budapest, give Orwell’s didactic Æsop fable a largely faithful, clear-eyed reading. The poorly treated animals staging a revolt, forming a commune, only to morph into a new caste system, all being equal, but some being more equal than others. A motto just as suited to animated features. And if this example of the form hasn’t the polish and invention of a prime Disney feature, they make a real professional job of it that holds up well. Especially in the spiffed up HD editions that show it at its best. (Good riddance to those beat up high school A/V department 16mm prints.) And while there's no happy ending, the anodyne style Disney gave those American Folk Tale shorts of the ‘40s works superbly here. (Inadvertent cookie-cutter social commentary?) What a shame we can’t know what Orwell, dying in 1950, would have thought of this. Or of the first version of 1984 out two years later.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Of the two top pigs, ‘Snowball’ may be pure Trotsky, but ‘Napoleon’s’ Stalin comes with a large slice of Mussolini. And watch Batchelor/Halas nod toward associative silent cinema ‘brutalist’ montage (a la Sergei Eisenstein) when the windmill tower explodes.
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