ANIMAL FARM (1954)

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.