Steve Reviews: Animal Farm (1999)

Añadido: 2026-05-03

[00:00:01]With the 2026 adaptation of Animal Farm very soon approaching, I felt it would be appropriate to look at the second adaptation of George Orwell's book, Animal Farm 1999.

[00:00:12]Now, normally when it comes to on-screen adaptations, particularly liveaction ones, you tend to dial down some of the violence and creepy imagery, so as not to scare off too much of your audience.

[00:00:23]So, in theory, this should be a pretty easy watch, right?

[00:00:48]Oh, let's see. What did this film managed to get rated as? Ah, okay. A PG.

[00:00:53]Not quite the U rating the 1954 one somehow managed to achieve, but I'd argue that some of the scenes in here are still pushing that rating to its absolute limit. Anyway, comrades, let's crack open the whiskey and take a look at Animal Farm 1999.

[00:01:18]We start off the film right at the very end where we see the ruins of Animal Farm as the narration provided by Jesse the dog explains to us that finally the tyranny of Napoleon is over and begins telling us the story of how this all happened. I >> still remember.

[00:01:34]>> Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

[00:01:40]I don't really get why they decided to open it this way, as I feel it kind of ruins the narrative. The point of the story is that we think the animals have achieved paradise and then slowly but surely we start to realize that something isn't right as Napoleon's corruption grows and grows.

[00:01:57]>> I'm not a huge fan personally of the whole 3 weeks earlier teaser thing. I feel like, you know, we should start our stories where they begin. though it does immediately show us that the film is also going to opt for the happy ending which wasn't the case in the book. So, we can already start to manage our expectations early on. I will give credit though. I do really like theatic opening of this scene. It's so over-the-top and dramatic, but it gets you pumped. We cut back to some time earlier where we see the Pilkin family driving along to Mana Farm, and we know they must be a pretty terrible family cuz we see the kids happily tormenting the animals. Though unfortunately it seems the one thing worse than the kids treatment of animals is their acting.

[00:02:37]>> Yes, we're only playing Mark.

[00:02:40]>> Phenomenal. We see them drive past Farmer Jones whose plowing of the fields is so poor that it would make Jeremy Clarkson seem competent.

[00:02:48]>> That's as straight as a roundabout.

[00:02:51]>> Turns out Farmer Jones is in quite a bit of debt with Mr. Pilington and Mr. Pilington is trying to pressure him into selling the farm. Jesse quickly has a chat with a horse named Molly, telling her that the animals have planned a meeting in the barn later tonight.

[00:03:04]>> There's a meeting tonight in the barn.

[00:03:06]>> Okay, Jesse, I'll be there.

[00:03:08]>> What the hell was that line delivery?

[00:03:11]Had this film not been made in 1999, I could have sworn that was just some texttospech software.

[00:03:16]>> Okay, Jesse, I'll be there.

[00:03:18]>> After Pilington drives off, Jones becomes frustrated and starts yelling at his horse named Boxer before Jesse intervenes and tackles him to the ground.

[00:03:28]Thou shalt not kill.

[00:03:30]>> He was hurting Boxer.

[00:03:32]>> Oh, come on. He was what? About to throw a clump of hay at him. This is nothing compared to the Jones in the 1954 film.

[00:03:40]>> Later that night, the animals hold a meeting in the barn where an elderly pig called Old Major starts telling the other animals about a dream he had where animals would overthrow the oppressive humans and live a life of peace and freedom. and so declares for this to be achieved, the animals must work together and carry out a revolution. Many of the animals in this film are live action, but for some of the animals, such as Old Major, they would instead use a puppet, which I think looks fine. Not the best, as the limited mouth movement can be a little distracting, but this was also just a director TV film, so I guess the budget wasn't that huge. But why or why did they have to give the pig such snotty looking noses?

[00:04:25]>> Disgusting.

[00:04:26]>> Then there are some shots where they use CGI for the animals. And yeah, they really don't look good at all.

[00:04:34]>> One thing I find interesting in this is that the animals don't refer to each other as comrades as they did in the book in the 54 film.

[00:04:41]>> Is this farm too poor to support us all?

[00:04:46]>> No, comrades. Now, that might not seem like a huge deal, but the whole theme of Animal Farm is supposed to be a representation of communism, something George Orwell wasn't a fan of. And the events which play out in Animal Farm are meant to mirror that of the Russian Revolution which was going on at the time, with many of the characters in Animal Farm acting as parallels to real life people. Why this film decided to consciously remove that aspect, I don't know. I guess that's what happens when you don't get any funding from the CIA.

[00:05:16]And speaking of things that detract from the book, we then get this scene back at the house, >> Mr. J.

[00:05:28]>> Yeah, that's what I needed to know more about from the original story. Farmer Jones's sex life.

[00:05:35]>> Mr. J.

[00:05:36]>> Almost as much as JK Rowling telling us about how wizards used to take shits on the floor before plumbing was invented.

[00:05:42]I honestly don't know why they felt the need to add this random sex scene in.

[00:05:46]The fact that he's cheating on his wife with Mr. Pilington's wife is something you think would be a plot point, but it's never bought up again. Guess I just really wanted to make the most of that PG rating.

[00:05:56]>> It might have some sexy scenes or very brief nudity.

[00:06:00]>> Back at the barn, all the animals start singing a song taught by Old Major, Beast of England, or Beast of the World in this case, which sings about how animals will one day be free from human oppression. And even though it differs from how it's meant to sound in the book, I actually quite like it.

[00:06:24]>> Unfortunately, all this squealing interrupts Farmer Jones's porking and he goes out to investigate with his rifle where he slips, fires the gun, and accidentally kills Old Major.

[00:06:34]Interesting to note here is that Farmer Jones only shoots his rifle by accident, whereas in the original, he does it intentionally, but also that it's the bullet from the gun that ends up killing Old Major rather than him dying naturally. I think I actually prefer this to the original, as there Old Major dying afterwards feels a bit random, whereas here it's directly linked to the action of Jones, and so gives the animals more motivation to begin their uprising. Though not going to lie, the death of old major in this film is unintentionally hilarious or the way he just yeets out of the barn.

[00:07:12]Like they could have had him just die then and there, but no, they wanted to launch that bad boy.

[00:07:22]>> Poor Major. He goes from dying peacefully in his sleep in the book to a heart attack in the 54 film to getting full-on blasted out the window in this.

[00:07:31]Makes me wonder what's going to happen to him in the 2026 version.

[00:07:39]One night, Farmer Jones neglects to feed the animals after spending the whole time out drinking. And so, in desperation, the animals break into the food store. Farmer Jones hears the commotion and goes out to confront them.

[00:07:50]only this time they don't run but charge towards him managing to drive him and his workforce off of the farm. The animals then celebrate their victory in what is actually a pretty cool shot.

[00:08:03]>> Farmer Jones retreats down to the local pub, hoping that some people will be able to help, but unfortunately that doesn't turn out to be the case.

[00:08:11]>> My dear boy, you're homeless. You have no money. I find it odd at how Farmer Jones is actually painted in a more sympathetic light in this film, coming across as more sad and pitiful when we see how he's treated by Mr. Pilkin.

[00:08:26]Plus, the fact that he comes across as less abusive than what we saw in the book and 54 film, even having it look like he didn't mean to fire off his gun as we saw earlier. But then the film also shows us at how he still willingly neglects the animals and of course cheats on his wife. So, he clearly doesn't want us to see him as a completely pitiful person. It's a bit of a weird one.

[00:08:51]>> Shut up, >> you little dumb ass [ __ ] I ain't [ __ ] with you.

[00:08:56]>> So, with the humans gone and the animals now free, all is good and happy, right?

[00:09:02]Well, no. We know it's not as they spoiled that in the opening scene. Back at the barn, Snowball is trying to teach himself how to read as well as attempting to milk a cow.

[00:09:12]Oh lord. All right, I just need practice.

[00:09:15]>> Yeah, we've all been there, buddy. He renames Mana Farm to Animal Farm and paints a set of rules onto the barn inspired by Old Major's original words, including that no animals should sleep in beds, no animals should drink alcohol. Oh, Jesus Christ, guys. Change that to Naughty Juice quick. You want to lose that PG rating? And of course, that all animals are equal. They also raise a flag to represent the newly named farm.

[00:09:41]Now, although the flag is still represented as the hoof and horn as described in the book, the design, however, has been altered. In the original, the flag is meant to be a closer illustration to that of the hammer and sickle, which again highlights another instance where this film seems to want to consciously distance itself from any reference to communism. The animals take a look around Jones's house and declare that it should be kept off limits and preserved like a museum. Where we start to get our first signs that Napoleon may be up to something.

[00:10:16]>> Keeps them quiet.

[00:10:18]>> Could be useful.

[00:10:20]>> Napoleon in this is voiced by Patrick Stewart. And though I think Patrick Stewart does a good job with the voice acting, I do feel that his take also gives Napoleon a far less sinister feel than what we got in the Book and 54 film. In those he was short, brash, and had an intimidating tone to his voice.

[00:10:38]Whereas here, he's a little more goofy and ironically acts more cartoonish than he does in the animated film.

[00:10:45]>> Dear boy, >> which makes him lose a bit of his threat factor.

[00:10:52]carried.

[00:10:54]>> The animals then enter the kitchen where they find the remains of other animals that have been previously killed, including Yeah. For a film that has some really goofy moments, it also has some really dark ones, too. Napoleon then sets out to start recruiting the dogs to be loyal to him first and foremost. I find it odd at how Napoleon is shown to already be wearing ribbons so early on as in the book there's a huge stink made about a horse named Molly who still wants to wear her ribbons as these are seen as a form of clothing. Like yeah, the pigs eventually start wearing clothes, but that's not till right near the very end.

[00:11:34]Napoleon then sets out to see Jesse, who has just given birth to a litter of puppies.

[00:11:40]Napoleon says that he will take the puppies away and will give them special education. As months pass by, the humans start growing concerned that the farm's not yet fallen as they had anticipated and so set up a microphone to spy on the animals. Not quite sure how they managed to sneak on the farm without being spotted or what they expected to listen in on with a bunch of animal sounds.

[00:12:02]Like, yeah, the pigs learn to talk later on, but did the humans actually expect that to happen? Some of the animals become upset when they learn that the pigs are hoarding the milk and apples.

[00:12:12]But after distracting them with some television to calm him down, Squealer explains that the pigs need these in order to fuel their brains so they can make the farm safe from Jones ever returning. I do quite like the addition of the television, which was not present in the book. Not only being used as a method of propaganda, but also as a means of distraction, which of course would never happen to us in real life.

[00:12:35]Hey, did you hear about Epstein killing himself? Oh yeah, that does sound a bit off. Say, you don't think that instead they actually Oh my god, look, people are trying to storm Area 51. Naruto run.

[00:12:48]After listening in on the animals, the humans suspect that the animals are starting to sing some sort of song and fear that this might spread over to other farms, so decide to launch an attack in order to take back the farm.

[00:12:59]Fortunately, Snowball had anticipated this and had already formulated a plan of defense. The humans approach the farm and an allout battle occurs.

[00:13:14]>> I say allout battle, but compared to the 54 film, this is actually pretty tame.

[00:13:19]But hey, you're using real life animals in this instance, so I get the limitation. Thanks to Snowball's tactics, the animals are successful and managed to drive the humans off. Also, is this guy meant to be Hitler? At first, I thought it was a weird coincidence, but after hearing him utter this line, >> "This is what happens when a weak man is allowed to run a farm. On my farm, there are no weak men."

[00:13:42]>> I'm wondering if this was intentional after all. Back at the farm, Snowball proposes the idea of building a windmill, saying that in the long term, once it's built, it will mean an easier life with only 3-day working weeks.

[00:13:55]>> Napoleon, however, disagrees. He says that it's a waste of time and begins to show his disdain for it.

[00:14:04]YOU PIG.

[00:14:06]>> And yes, Napoleon taking a piss on the plans is actually in the book. Though what isn't in the books is how Napoleon summons the dogs on Snowball in this film.

[00:14:16]>> Snowball.

[00:14:20]>> The hell was that? A quiet murmur of Snowball's name and the dogs come charging in. In the Book and 54 film, Napoleon gives out a loud shriek to summon them. Yet here he just quietly whispers it. Snowball is chased off of the farm, be it very slowly, and Nar Lee manages to escape.

[00:14:39]>> I actually think the 54 film does it best where Snowball is officially killed off because of the way he's built up in the first half of this film. The fact that he specifically escapes alive, you almost expect him to come back, but he doesn't. And he never appears again in the film other than when Napoleon is mentioning him in lies. You can still have Napoleon do this if Snowball is killed off. Just have it so that only Napoleon knows the true outcome of Snowball's fate. And you know, Snowball's counterpart, Trosky, was also assassinated in real life, so it would be more of a fitting end for him.

[00:15:17]Napoleon tells the other animals that Snowball was a traitor and that the windmill was in fact his idea all along.

[00:15:24]He also declares that there will be no more debates and that the pigs will shoulder the burden of having to do all the thinking. God, again, why so much with the snot and dribble? As time passes, the animals work hard to build what I think is meant to be a windmill.

[00:15:39]But the animals begin to notice strange behavior in the pigs, such as sleeping in beds, which they could have sworn was against the rules. But upon checking the barn, they find that they were simply mistaken. Meanwhile, the humans soon discover that the animals can talk after all, where Mr. Pilington sees this as a new opportunity to start doing business with Animal Farm and arranges to meet with Napoleon.

[00:16:01]>> After you, dear boy. Dear boy. Dear boy.

[00:16:07]>> Wonderful. A puler with a sense of humor.

[00:16:11]>> Which starts to not only worry the animals, but also some of the humans, too.

[00:16:15]>> What about the hunger, Mr. Pilkington?

[00:16:18]>> What hunger? The animals are starving and it's not to your credit.

[00:16:22]>> Damn. Never thought I'd hear the voice of reason from Hitler. And in an act of vengeance, Farmer Jones decides to blow up the windmill that the animals build.

[00:16:34]Which honestly, I think he did them a favor. It's actually kind of funny how this film borrows this plot point from the 54 film, as in the book, Jones doesn't actually blow up the windmill.

[00:16:44]Napoleon, however, sees the silver lining in this and uses it as an opportunity to blame someone else.

[00:16:50]>> Do you know who has stolen the truck and BLOWN UP OUR WINDMILL? SNOWBALL.

[00:16:56]>> Love that dramatic zoom. And continues to blame Snowball for other failures such as the shortage of food in which he declares in order to make up for this, the hens will need to hand over their eggs for market. This angers the hens as they were told they would never have to surrender their eggs again and so decide to smash them in protest. Napoleon declares all hens criminals and orders them to be starved to death. The pigs also use Jones's camera equipment to create news reels for the other animals.

[00:17:24]>> Huh. Didn't know Jones was into film making. Perhaps he could have found other ways to make money for the farm after all.

[00:17:30]>> Guilty.

[00:17:33]>> Guilty.

[00:17:39]Jesus. Though somehow still not as brutal as that tunnel scene in Willy Wonker and the Chocolate Factory, work on the windmill continues until one of the horses named Boxer, or is it Buster has an accident and becomes seriously injured. So much so that it seems that he may never be able to work again.

[00:17:57]Despite his injuries, Boxer was in good spirits as he was hopeful that he would now be able to retire and live the remainder of his days in peace. However, the pigs announce that an ambulance is on its way so the boxer can be taken to hospital for better treatment. But as they are loading him up, the animals realize that it's not an ambulance after all, but instead a van from the slaughter house.

[00:18:19]>> Get your way out.

[00:18:22]They're taking you to your dad.

[00:18:26]>> And as saddening as this scene is, it's still got nothing on the trauma from the 54 version.

[00:18:36]The fact that Boxer was not only a hard worker, but had always shown full support and loyalty to Napoleon, >> Napoleon is always right.

[00:18:44]>> Just goes to show that no matter how much of a good farm animal you were, you were always seen as disposable once your usefulness runs out. And worst of all, the money Napoleon got from selling Boxer was used for the sole purpose of buying more whiskey, which I think is beautifully put in the 1954 film.

[00:19:02]>> The pigs drank to Boxer's memory and the whiskey they had bought with Boxer's life.

[00:19:08]>> Napoleon then invites Mr. Pilkin and his wife over to celebrate.

[00:19:16]>> I've heard such a lot about you, Mr. N.

[00:19:19]Oh god, she's not going to start [ __ ] the pig, is she? Essie peers in through the window and starts to see the humans and pigs starting to morph into one another.

[00:19:29]>> I can't tell the difference between them.

[00:19:32]>> Now, in the book, this is kind of meant as a more metaphorical sense, as in the humans and the pigs are behaving so similar. In the 54 film, they take it a little more literal, where the donkey begins to hallucinate the pigs turning into humans. And here it's a bit of a middle ground where it's the distortion of the glass that is meant to make the humans look like pigs and vice versa.

[00:19:53]The animals then head to the barn and see that one final rule has been added.

[00:19:58]>> All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

[00:20:05]>> Finally having enough, Jesse rounds up the remaining animals to flee the farm where we get a final propaganda piece singing praises to Napoleon. You see, the farm has now turned into a full-on dictatorship. And even worse, it's now also CG. Genuinely though, I actually really like this final sendoff. It really gives off that crazy authoritarian feel that the farm has now become. And seeing Napoleon standing there upright in these clothes is actually quite a chilling sight. And we hear the iconic chant of four legs good, two legs bad has now been rewritten to be four legs good, two legs better.

[00:20:48]Napoleon then declares that the revolution is now over and that all animals are free where the film ends.

[00:20:59]At least I wish I could say that the film ends here, but like the 54 version, this one tries to also go for a happier ending. We cut forward a few years to where we started off the film with the remains of Napoleon's fallen empire, where Jesse and the other animals finally return back to the farm. We cut forward again in time to find that everything has now been fully restored somehow, where we see another group of human owners entering the farm as Jesse states that they will not allow the same mistakes to happen again where the film actually ends. Um, okay. The ending of this just kind of comes out of nowhere.

[00:21:38]We see that Napoleon's farm has collapsed, but never really told how.

[00:21:43]Again, it's meant to be like what happened with the Soviet Union, but here we're just meant to believe it did.

[00:21:48]>> Because >> at least in the 54 version, we actually see it's because the animals have finally risen up. But here, it just cuts forward in time. And then that final shot of humans once again running the farm just feels like it's going against the entire point of the story.

[00:22:05]And now at last we shall be free.

[00:22:08]>> What do you mean you're free? You once again have humans running the farm.

[00:22:13]Sure, they may actually be better people, but if they want the farm to prosper, they will still have to sell produce such as milk, eggs, and even meat. So, I wouldn't exactly call that the freedom that Old Major originally proposed.

[00:22:26]>> Man, how is it that despite the 54 version being part CIA funded, this one feels like more of a CIA ending? like, "Well, you tried your little revolution, didn't work out, so now we've put humans back in control. Hope you learned your lesson." I don't know why these film adaptations feel the need to tack on a happy ending, as it just cheapens the cautionary tale. That moment after Napoleon states that all animals are now free would have been the perfect ending, be it without the cheesy plane sounds coming from the peace final. If you must insist on trying to give the story a happy ending, at least fullon commit to it instead of just slapping it on last minute. You want Jesse to have more of a role? Fine. Have her flee the farm by herself to find help. There she could even discover Snowball, learn the truth, and with his cunning tactician skills that we saw earlier on, he and the other animals could go on and rally together and take down Napoleon. And I know Orwell has gone on record to say that even if Snowball hadn't been chased off, his plans were doomed to fail, hence the destruction of the windmill later anyway. But for the film's sake, you could have it a happy ending where the animals can finally build their utopia, only now under Snowball's leadership. If I were to rank the two film adaptations, I would probably rank this one as the worst. It has a roughly 20-minute longer run time, and much of that is just pointless fluff. There are some neat additions added, but most of it felt unnecessary. I get Jesse's role being expanded in order to give the film a bit of an anchor, but in reality, she doesn't add much, only really commenting on how everything is so terrible, which we can kind of see for ourselves. This version also completely emits the allegory of communism, which Orwell was very much against. And even though both adaptations give the original story a happy ending, at least with the 54 version, it has the animals triumphing.

[00:24:14]This version also seems to have both the darkest yet also silliest moments. And I think that can be summoned up perfectly with The Death of Old Major. Definitely the most brutal, but also the goofiest.

[00:24:26]And so it puts the film in a bit of a weird spot, like is it made for a younger audience or is it made for adults? It's not a terrible film by any stretch, as overall it still does follow the basic message of the book and remains faithful in many ways. But if I were to recommend one version to watch, it would definitely be the animated version. Still, despite this being the worst version as of now, I've got a sneaking suspicion that after the release of Animal Farm 2026, we'll probably be looking back at this version a lot more fondly. Whether that actually happens to be the case, we'll just have to wait and see. But until the next one, guys, take care.