Animal Farm (1999 film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Animal Farm
Theatrical poster
Based on	Animal Farm by George Orwell
Written by	Alan Janes Martyn Burke (teleplay)
Directed by	John Stephenson
Starring	Kelsey Grammer Ian Holm Julia Louis-Dreyfus Patrick Stewart Julia Ormond Paul Scofield Pete Postlethwaite Peter Ustinov
Theme music composer	Richard Harvey
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Greg Smith Robert Halmi
Cinematography	Mike Brewster
Editor(s)	Colin Green
Running time	91 minutes
Distributor	Hallmark Films
Budget	$23 million
Release
Original network	TNT
Original release	3 October 1999 (1999-10-03)

Animal Farm is a 1999 British-American television film directed by John Stephenson and written by Alan Janes. Based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell, it stars Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Julia Ormond, Paul Scofield, Pete Postlethwaite and Peter Ustinov. In the film, a group of anthropomorphic animals successfully revolt against their own human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny among themselves.

Cast

• Pete Postlethwaite as Jones, the original owner of Manor Farm who is overthrown by the animals due to his attitude and behaviour towards them. He represents Czar Nicholas II.
• Caroline Gray as Mrs. Jones, Jones' wife.
• Alan Stanford as Pilkington, the owner of Foxwood Farm and neighbor of Jones who later works for Napoleon. He represents the British ruling class.
• Gail Fitzpatrick as Mrs. Pilkington, Pilkington's wife.
• Gerard Walsh as Frederick, the owner of Pinchfield Farm. He represents Adolf Hitler.

Voices

• Julia Ormond as Jessie, a wise and virtuous Border collie who's the narrator of the film. She represents one of the oppressed masses under Stalin or under any other dictator.
• Patrick Stewart as Napoleon, a greedy Berkshire boar and the oppressive ruler of Animal Farm after Snowball's banishment. He represents Joseph Stalin.
• Ian Holm as Squealer, an intelligent Tamworth pig who is Napoleon's assistant and the minister of propaganda. He represents Vyacheslav Molotov.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Mollie, a young mare who is obsessed with ribbons and Boxer's daughter. She represents the petit bourgeoisie that fled from Russia a few years after the Russian Revolution.
• Kelsey Grammer as Snowball, a noble boar who is in charge of Animal Farm after Old Major's death and the exile of Mr. Jones until he is overthrown by Napoleon. He represents Leon Trotsky.
• Pete Postlethwaite as Benjamin, a wise donkey who is a close friend of Boxer and is the oldest of all the animals. He represents the Menshevik intelligentsia. Postlethwaite also played Mr. Jones in the film.
• Paul Scofield as Boxer, a kind-hearted shire horse and the strongest of all the animals who is later made into glue. He represents Alexey Stakhanov.
• Peter Ustinov as Old Major, a benevolent Middle White boar who is the original chief of Manor Farm until his death. He represents Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
• Charles Dale as Moses, a dim-witted humorous raven and the former pet of Mr. Jones who is later in cahoots with Napoleon. He represents organized religion.
  • Dale also plays Pincher, a Rottweiler who becomes Napoleon's bodyguard.
• Jean Beith as Muriel, an elderly Saanen goat.

Differences between the book and the film

Hoof and Horn flag used in the film.

Second version of the flag seen at the end of the film.

• In the movie, there is an implication that Pilkington might have been the cause of everything, from refusing to help Jones with his money problems to persuading Napoleon to be more dictator-like. In the book, no mention was made of financial problems aside from Jones "having becoming much disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit."
• In the movie, Jessie is set as the main character and the events are told from her point of view. There is no central character in the book. She could possibly be taking over the role of Clover the horse, who is not in the film, though a black horse seen several times is presumed by people to be her.
• Like the 1954 adaptation of the film, Jessie's mate, Bluebell was not seen nor mentioned. Pincher, however, is in the film and works as Napoleon's bodyguard.
• There are only four pigs in the movie (Old Major, Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer). While in the book, there are several who begin to run the farm and to oversee the work done by the other animals.
• Old Major dies of old age three days after his speech in the book and is buried. In the movie, he dies after getting accidentally shot and falls; his body is then cut up into joints which were discovered by the other animals when they look around the house.
• The animals' rebellion takes place during midday in the book, while in the movie, it takes place during the night.
• In the movie, it was Boxer the horse who breaks open the door to the feed shed, while in the book, it was one of the cows.
• In the book, when Jones realizes that the animals had broken into the feed shed, he and his helpers march inside. And started cracking whips in order to drive the animals out. In the movie, they just go and see what is going on before the animals start attacking them. They also don't have whips, although Jones has a shotgun with him.
• In the book, the animals begin burning all the things owned by Jones, including whips, harnesses, butcher's knives, and chains, and start singing "Beasts of England" around it. While in the movie, the animals are seen singing around a large fire. This fire is started by a lantern that was kicked over.
• In the movie, there is an implication that Napoleon and Squealer were plotting to take over the farm even seconds after the revolution.
• The humans use a hidden microphone to eavesdrop on the animals in the movie. This never happens in the book.
• The humans try to retake the farm twice in the book, while they only try once in the movie.
• In the book, the puppies who would later become Napoleon's savage secret police and guards are the offspring of Jessie and Bluebell. In the movie, they are Jessie's own children, as Bluebell has been adapted out.
• Mr Frederick, the other named human farmer besides Pilkington, has a different role in the film than in the book: In the book, he is the one that begins trade with Animal Farm but pays them with counterfeit money, and leads the second attempt to retake the farm after the pigs discover the deceit and declare war on him. In the film, it is Mr Pilkington who trades with the animals with shady deals while Mr Frederick has a reduced role and even expresses sympathy for the animals at one point.
• Mollie the mare has a larger and different role in the film than in the book, and instead of leaving for another farm after the revolution in the book, in the film, she only leaves with the other animals after Boxer's death.
• The pigs use a television set and film to spread their propaganda in the movie, which doesn't happen in the book.
• In the book, the windmill gets destroyed twice: first by a storm (which Napoleon attributes falsely to the exiled Snowball), then by the second human attempt to retake the farm. In the movie, Mr Jones destroys the windmill with dynamite before fleeing with his wife, although their truck is also destroyed in the process, with its wreck later added to the rebuilt windmill.
• In the book, the events of the story take place over many years. In the movie, it's only a few days.
• In the book, Boxer gets shot in the leg after the second attempt by the humans to retake the farm; this, along with overworking to rebuilt the windmill, causes him to badly damage his leg and to retire from work. In the movie, he does not get shot in the leg and it is the overworking that causes him to have an accident. But in both the book and the film, the pigs deliberately send him off to the glue factory while lying that he is going to a hospital for animals.
• In the book, a new generation of pigs are born after Napoleon takes over as leader. This doesn't happen in the movie, seeing that Napoleon and Squealer are the only pigs present on the farm at that point.
• Moses the raven is a religious figure in the book and is often quoting about a place called Sugar Candy Mountain, where all animals go after they die. In the movie, even though he does appear, Moses is not religious, although he is heard saying his version of the last rites to Boxer when he collapses from overworking.
• In the book, the animals discover to their horror that they cannot tell the difference between the pigs and humans when they eavesdrop on a meeting between the pigs and the farmers. In the movie, it is Jessie who realizes it when she sees Napoleon and Squealer entertaining Pilkington and his wife, through a dirty window that warps their faces. In addition, only Pilkington and his wife attend as opposed to several humans in the book, and there is no brawl over an Ace of Spades in the film.
• In the book, all of the pigs begin to walk on their back legs and to wear human clothing. In the movie, only Napoleon is seen standing upright and wearing clothes. Squealer is also seen wearing a spectacle in the movie.
• In the movie, some of the animals (including Jessie) manage to escape into the nearby woods and only returned after Napoleon's dictatorship led the farm into self-destruction. In the book, they don't and there is no happy ending, with Muriel the goat having died prior to the book's ending.
• At the end of the movie, a new and kinder family moves into the farm who the surviving animals will work alongside to produce a better future. This never happens in the book.

See also

In Spanish: Rebelión en la granja (película de 1999) para niños