DISTURBING Movie About Political Animals...

• Video

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

One hell of a book having to learn back in school.
“All animals are equals but some are more equal”

[@Funnypants]

"Four legs good, two legs better!"

[@Reaper666-99]

NO ANIMAL SHALL SLEEP IN A BED! with sheets

[@Bluejoltyt]

NO ANIMAL SHALL DRINK ALCOHOL!! to access…

[@rockythepiratequeen]

All animals are born equal but some are born more equal than others.... dang now that's a quote!!!

[@Crimsonlee2XX]

NO ANIMAL SHALL KILL ANOTHER ANIMAL
Without just cause…

[@mrchoochooguy4045]

Just for an idea of how dark this story is
In the original novel, not sure about the film (haven't watched it yet) Boxer (the horse mentioned here) worked so hard for the pigs (the tyrants) that he injured himself so hard he needed early retirement (edit: just remembered from a comment, he was kept working well past his promised retirement by the pigs, so probably more a late retirement). The pigs instead sent him to be killed and turned into glue, to get money to buy some more beer for themselves.

[@davispo7550]

I've read that he's supposed to represent either
A) Manual labourers (who are not sufficiently cared for by the state)
B) China (who became communist shortly after the book's writing and whose radical fervour later caused widespread famine and hardship) [unlikely as all these events happened after publication, but it's interesting given the 1900 Boxer rebellion there and parallels with Maoist China and Stalinist USSR]

[@snakewithapen5489]

​@Davis Po most likely laborers who pledge themselves to a state that they will not see a return from before they die. Boxer is an interesting name coincidence though

[@LumaMars]

@@davispo7550 Boxer and clover were meant to represent the middle class workers of society
Clover a middle class working woman and mother
And Boxer a hard working man for his country

[@Grimfang999]

@@LumaMars Its a little more than this. He represents the working class yes, but much more specifically he represented the ideological spirit of socialism. A single-minded devotion to the people and community around themselves, inspiring all others around them to be better people and ensure each others wellbeing.
Even in injury he fought on, all the way until he collapsed, staggering through even as things got worse. Upon his execution, there was nothing left of the socialist ideal, only a state of slaves to a new master.

[@MelonHere20]

Yeah I remember that! I read the whole book but I only ever watched a little bit of the film

[@b_crystals]

“The animals looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but it was already impossible to tell which was which”

[@Lady-T3A]

My class just got done reading the book but good God that paragraph still sticks with me. The pigs, who they were meant to look up to and respect more than anyone, only for them to turn on them and become the very thing that they were meant to fight against to the point they the pigs and humans don't even have that many differences.

[@Cybersaurus5783]

My history teacher played this in class and im pretty sure 70% percent of the entire class was traumatized

[@mariaf.v.dossantos2593]

I like your history teacher 😂
Just today my class had a debate over this book in class, our teacher asked us to discuss it

[@Bitterwarp]

Well my teacher hasn’t played it but i seen 6th or 7th grade do freaking projects about that movie so im in 5th my innocence will die soon

[@Patriot2814]

Why even would she💀

[@Cybersaurus5783]

@@Patriot2814 *he

[@Jirwemthegreat]

This cartoon was actually my first exposure to Orwell.

[@Ivegotsomewater81]

Mine was the 1984 novel. I loved it

[@Shortyginger]

Same here

[@MP_POLO]

same

[@MorbSquad420]

Same

[@magicdawn1973]

Mine was the 1984 novel, which was boring and confusing at the time so I actually never finished it

[@bensspaceagency4606]

“...And they looked from man to pig, and from pig to man, and from man to pig again and could not tell which was which.” (Kinda paraphrased)

[@s7robin105]

In short, the pigs (Soviet Leaders) were the same type of evil as the farmers (capitalists) and so a new revolution was needed to once again free the animals (workers) and create a alternative (This is where Orwell's libertarian socialist Ideals come in)

[@blademaster4361]

You know the revolution took a wrong turn when you can't tell the difference between the communist and the capitalist

[@zackbuildit88]

​@@blademaster4361 when both sides become authoritarian, does the extremism they pick even matter?

[@blademaster4361]

@@zackbuildit88 Make no mistake, authoritarianism doesn't come from both sides. The goal of the Russian Revolution was not to create the Soviet Union, it was to create a society of equals, whatever that would have looked like. Unfortunately, getting there from scratch is a tricky business

[@zackbuildit88]

@@blademaster4361 authoritarianism is an independent but related feature of nation to its economic policies. At the peak of the cold war, both Russia and the United States were highly authoritarian despite having directly opposite economic policies, simply because taking either system to the theoretical extreme requires authoritarianism in some capacity

[@toastboast1368]

Boxer and Benjamin were my fav characters, so I was honestly sad for Benjamin that he had no best friend anymore lol.

[@user-xu2yq1zd6t]

if you watch the movie boxer works so hard only to get injured and basically no rest

[@fuzzywheezledoodlers]

Bro I so loved Mollie and Snowball, too bad they were both ditched early on

[@Toadey2012]

Oh my gosh I CRIED WHEN BOXER DIED BRU

[@nathanodonovan6708]

Orwell was himself a socialist, but he was also anti-authoritarian. His issue was mostly with Stalinism and the perversion of communist ideals following the Russian Revolution, rather than being anti-Communist as an ideology.

[@Casual-Yohoho-Enjoyer]

Isn't that impressive how throughout history we've created so many ideas that could be heaven and turned them all into hell? Monarchy, socialism, capitalism, they're all so perfect on paper but the moment you add humans to the equation it all goes downhill

[@dandydanthedapperman7797]

@@Casual-Yohoho-Enjoyer yep, that’s why every scifi ever has the robots decide to murder humanity. Even if we did create ai to run the world, the programmers would take advantage of it. It’s deal with the government you ended up getting because the grass is always greener(can vary)

[@Taschip]

Not based

[@comrademax5302]

Orwell worked with the british government to imprison other socialists

[@pellabologna]

​@Casual-Yohoho-Enjoyer lol 2 of those are totally dysfunctional on paper, because they both cannot truly be democratic and serve the interests of the people. Capital always will sway over voting, and monarchies don't allow it. Capitalist hierarchies are akin to monarchies but built around finance.
Socialism is the democratization of everything.

[@lulufan100]

The only part that absolutely terrified me as a kid was the pigs starting to walk. It just felt so wrong and unnatural

[@Jangobadass]

That's the point, bro.

[@lulufan100]

I know lol, it worked

[@AnarchoTak]

it's CIA propaganda

[@s7robin105]

@@Jangobadass Its not the point for it to feel unnatural its meant to show the leaders becoming as corrupt as what they replaced.

[@s7robin105]

@@AnarchoTak Its BAD propaganda because it never says the capitalists (farmers) were right or better. It merely states a new better revolution is needed. They never go back to the farmers in the book or movie

[@REDACTEDbox]

i read the book in high school, i had no idea they made it into a legitimate animated film

[@leatherfoot11]

I watched the abimated film back in high school.

[@jacobcox4565]

They also made a live action adaptation.

[@choreani]

Not only an animated film, but a live action one too
And dang they are both damning

[@MrGamelover23]

My class got to experience both.

[@henryca03]

The live action version had Kelsey Grammar and Patrick Stewart as part of the voice cast, voicing Snowball and Napoleon respectively.

[@candlestixsmixedwithtrixs]

Oh my goodness I remember my sister finding this in the kids section of the library when we were in elementary. We were watching it at night before we went to bed, and when Snowball’s death scene started happening, I started screaming and crying so bad. I have no idea how that movie made its way into the kids section, but that thing did not need to go ahead and freak my poor younger self like that.

[@nuyabuisness7526]

Kids in school are really given books like this, and 1984 and still come out thinking communism is a good idea.

[@guardianofthehill]

Simple Ametican dualist thinking. The American kids grow up in a hyper-capitalist system of greed and decadence, grow disillusioned with it, but then, because they grew up in America, where everything is turned into a dualist good-bad divide, they started to support Communism because in the hyper-capitalist system, Communism was the boogeyman. So when they start to consider Capitalism the boogeyman, the "bad" option, they start to believe that Communism is the "good option". Despite the fact that both hyper-capitalism and communism are bad options. All this, just because political nuance doesn't really exist in America, just Us vs Them nonsense. Really frustrates me as a German when I see ignorant Americans start to support Communism or Fascism simply because "But other side worse!"

[@nightmarexgaming120]

Orwell was literally a socialist. The antagonist of the books isn’t communism its authoritarianism. Animal Farm is a critique of how Stalin run the USSR. 1984 is about warning of the dangers of the lives of the people being controlled by the state.

[@UltimateDragonX9999]

Craziest thing about this film is that it came out in 1954, the same year the very first Godzilla film released In Japan.

[@thedrewster0408]

Also I think this was also the first animated film made in Britain.

[@DatDrawingKid011]

@thelegendaryarceus5618Then what was the first?

[@mrsillytacos]

@@DatDrawingKid011 an Argentinian film I believe in 1917.

[@redline1916]

Regardless of the CIA being involved, it definitely has some awareness towards more than just communism.

[@dansmith1661]

The CIA will support Communists to defeat Democratically elected leaders.

[@fabioviti7384]

stalinism*

[@casperheath5672]

I was wondering what the CIA had to do with it, I read and watched the story, and I was certain it was only based off the revolution. Was I not getting something from the movie? Cause the book definitely didn't have ties into the CIA.

[@SOAVGaming]

@@casperheath5672 this short definitely didn't have much insight to the actual political beliefs of Orwell. It's probably in his mind and fair to assume that Orwell was a anti-communist and this work was anti-communist in nature because it came out around the cold-war, but like all works of Orwell the leading theme is always "the righteous revolution went bad because a tyrant took over" this is because Orwell wasn't a anti-communist, but rather a Anarchistic Communist who hated the Soviet Union and authoritarian communism. It's strange honestly how this was allowed to be produced given that fact, since it's implied that before the revolution things were just the same level of suffering. But Ayn Rand managed to get a film based on her books shown in Mussolini's Italy, history doesn't have to be believable.

[@casperheath5672]

@@SOAVGaming thank you

[@1234JohnstoneStudios]

My mum actually put this on for me to watch for History class last year, and once it finished, I was just sitting there, trying to comprehend what I just witnessed

[@Crux___]

Bro my class practically begged our English teacher to put this on after we finished reading the book. We basically spent the whole 2 hour period watching it, good times

[@spaghetti5914]

I remember being 7 and my parents getting this movie for me, thinking it was a kid's cartoon. The scene with the horse traumatized me for years. I don't know how, but my 7 year old self believed that the horse was gonna be sent to be executed, skinned alive and turned into food for the pigs. Maybe a mistranslation in my language's dub made it more gruesome sounding(if it even was dubbed, I may have simply sat down and tried to understand the plot while the movie was in English)

[@willausterman3104]

I mean he was boiled and turned into glue so you were not too far off

[@genericname2747]

Another victim of parents assuming an animated animal movie is kid friendly.

[@arturoaguilar6002]

@@willausterman3104 And the pigs got whisky in exchange, so it was very close to the same thing with extra steps.

[@ArmedSpaghet]

I was traumatized by The brave little toaster and Osmosis Jones.
Both i been told are not scary.. lol

[@genericname2747]

@@ArmedSpaghet Those people are wrong. They're super scary

[@arturoaguilar6002]

I find hilarious that the cartoon creators felt that the pigs moving into the human's house, walking on two legs and being fully clothed was way too subtle to get the point across; so they had the pigs' faces literally morph into human faces for a moment at the end. XD

[@GreebleClown]

That’s directly from the book: the animals looking through the window looked from man to pig to man and couldn’t tell the difference.
The End.
(Seriously, that’s the ending.)

[@ein_blinde_Nashorn]

That’s literally what happened under communistic rule in Russia. They weren’t liberators, they were just as tyrannical as the previous governments.

[@vasconcelos7356]

That's straight from the book tho

[@hannibalburgers477]

That horse being sent to de camp: 😏😏😏

[@cmendoza1094]

It’s for children and those with infantile minds. They are the ones we need to teach and protect

[@WeaponizedAutism343]

It’s very disingenuous to merely call it an anti communism psyop. Animal farm isn’t a criticism of communism, it is a criticism of authoritarianism. If anything, it promotes socialism as its critiques of authoritarianism can be applied to un checked capitalism and corporatism.

[@michaelmartinek7408]

If anything, it follows stalinism closer than communism, but yes, you are 100% right.

[@gutgunstig7061]

I think people ignore the fact that in the beginning, the animals "free" themselves from an oppressive sytsem. Were the humans also a metaphor for communism? Maybe they represent another system that is bad, that usually comes before the revolution?

[@lucker6181]

No. It doesnt promote socialism lmao

[@michaelmartinek7408]

@@lucker6181 $10 says you can't define socialism.
Btw George Orwell was a socialist.

[@comrademax5302]

​@@michaelmartinek7408 does a socialist rat on his comrades to the british government?

[@mr_eclipse5774]

I’ve spent an entire semester learning this for ELA, seeing SaberSpark cover this madness would be amazing.

[@cmendoza1094]

What’s ELA

[@mr_eclipse5774]

@@cmendoza1094English language arts or something like that.

[@timesnewlogan2032]

Friendly reminder that Snowball would have been only MILDLY better than Napoleon, according to Orwell himself.

[@Noperare]

Considering Snowball represents Trotsky, the only reason he is praised is because he didn't got the chance to commit all the atrocities that would be inevitable for the Soviet Union.

[@timesnewlogan2032]

@@Noperare Exactly. Animal Farm is one of the largest causes of the “Clean Trotsky” myth, despite Orwell’s own words.

[@fabioviti7384]

I mean, orwell was an anarchist/socialist; he didn't liked the soviet union in general because he got fucked up in Spain since Stalin refused to help.
tho we should remember that, historically speaking, troski is leagues above Stalin in basically everything and wouldn't have been a dictator, doesn't matter what orwell said

[@timesnewlogan2032]

@@fabioviti7384 I wouldn't be so sure. His ideals of Permanent Revolution likely would have kicked off a world war to spread the revolution, and who knows how many more would have died as a result?

[@unaihmg9352]

Well Orwell was a terrible human being here us an Orwell quote on Hitler: 'I should like to put it on record that I have never been able to dislike Hitler. Ever since he came to power "

[@anubisgodofdeath420]

I remember reading and researching this book as a project for middle school, it really impacted my perspective of the world after reading it

[@divebombexpert2619]

I had a similar thing with 1984.

[@kyubeycoobie3568]

That's literally why the CIA made this movie
Literally the purpose and effect of propaganda

[@melonsauce1474]

The story of the horse is what some people go through in the US.

[@CavemanCrafts86]

​@@kyubeycoobie3568he's talking about the book, not the movie. Besides, Orwell was proven 100% right.

[@justinbhardwaj1467]

This video is the first time I had ever heard about animal farm, now I have read the entire book, and watched the movie, and I just want to say thanks for introducing me to a great book and even better author l! 😊

[@justsomeguywithamustach]

I remember this book when i read it in school they called their government "animalism" and my friend said it should be called "bestiality"

[@Toadey2012]

Your friend Is a smartass

[@Tevildo]

1954? I though it was from the 70's. Even more impressive technically, in that case.

[@snerttt]

Yeah it cost about $4 million (with inflation)

[@pootislord3112]

sweet CIA propaganda money

[@jr2904]

​@@pootislord3112 this propaganda served a great purpose

[@pootislord3112]

@@jr2904 Of spreading propaganda?

[@peteynutt4104]

​@@pootislord3112 Orwell is not propoganda

[@wyren925]

you have just re-awakened my childhood memory and trauma of this movie thx, love your vids

[@Kehman86]

Same

[@amfvideos6810]

The book was one of the best books i've ever read, truly enlightening

[@madgoat2125]

holy dhit he actually covered it my friends are all obsessed with keeping the fandom for it alive im scared blease help

[@_BubblGum_]

lmao

[@madgoat2125]

@@_BubblGum_ please help me

[@gircakes2]

Dude I loved the book when I read it for school in middle school. Makes me feel less weird knowing there is a fandom for it.

[@nightmarexgaming120]

I don’t think fans of George Orwell are going away anytime soon

[@momozimunya4015]

Fun fact: Disney was scared to make adaptation about it

[@maevblog9955]

Would disney actually do that?

[@revolvency]

As it should

[@guilhermeteodosio40]

Well, they weren't scared of making racist depictions of asians, indians and blacks though💀

[@maevblog9955]

@@guilhermeteodosio40 Disney regrets that now

[@guilhermeteodosio40]

@@maevblog9955 they should

[@flywashere]

When I was in high-school they had me watch this in my history class. We were all shocked because we never seen a cartoon this graphic and dark. The history teacher I had was closing his eyes constantly and then started crying in horror. Especially when the dogs kill the farm animals and they had the bloody writing. My teacher said it was just as Fucking dark as the hands in the 1930 all quiet as the western front
Edit:he was also constantly apologizing for show this movie to us. Even though we were watching it for educational purposes.
2nd Edit:he actually did swear when we finished it

[@TheRockyCrowe]

I had the same experience in middle school 😂, this movie was one of the first memorable experiences I had seeing animation used to depict such unfiltered brutality. And with anthro characters on top of that. It inspired me to appreciate the art form even more.
Also led me down the rabbit hole of Orwellian fiction. Lol

[@TheFreakJessie]

I also watch it too. Except we watch it in senior year and that was around the beginning of Covid.

[@djaccountisbfisbx3880]

Are you sure you aren’t mistaking this movie for a different one? I watched it recently and I don’t think Animal Farm movie or book are dark to the point where it could be compared to All Quiet on the Western Front.

[@Hdrgnprxd]

Out of curiosity, where are you from? I remember my dad showing me this when I was twelve and while it impressed me quite a lot I didn't found it that disturbing at all. Same when two years later I was reading the book for school and my class was rewatching the movie and it didn't disturbed anyone. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I live in a post soviet country and by that age kids just strug it as "yup, it matches what our parents told us"

[@joecope9935]

@@Hdrgnprxd Yeah. People who are already wet are less bothered by the rain.
For a lot of kids growing up in a wealthy suburban neighborhood or in some small rural town in the USA, it's pretty shocking to be confronted with the reality of how hard life can be in other places in the world or in other times in history.

[@spudgebeethoven6495]

Bro this was such a good book. It took me a while to get through, but the ending was such a shock. Totally worth the time though. I honestly don't think I would have read this if I was in public school growing up. This is one reason I'm really glad I was homeschooled.

[@lunisangelo2148]

You know its shocking that I watched this movie at 6 and cant remembered anything but vivid scene and now you reminded of it completely

[@Gamma5232]

Read it a few years ago. An excellent book about the dangers of authoritarianism, and how it can evolve out of something good.

[@dansmith1661]

It was never something good. It was a foreign group who undermined a country and killed it leader.

[@olg7483]

I mean I don't think communism is something good

[@NarfoOnTheNet]

I remember talking to my mother about this.
She insisted on saying "it's just talking animals"
Btw I have read the book. Twice.

[@tutorialtime403]

Our 3rd grade teacher showed us this movie in class,she said it was a FUN HAPPY MOVIE WITH WHOLESOME MESSAGES!The next parent teacher meeting was chaos 😂

[@DaPeanutButter]

There's also an album based on the book called Animals by Pink Floyd. The songs are titled Pigs on The Wing (Part 1), Dogs, Pigs (3 Different Ones), Sheep, and Pigs on The Wing (Part 2)

[@Silverstonegamergirl]

I read this book in middle school and we were shown a live action movie (though it had a different ending) I feel like it would’ve been more effective if we as middle schoolers knew about the rise of the communism and Russia and the Soviet Union but it wasn’t really well taught other than “USA good ussr bad”. All I know is that scene of them tricking the horse into thinking he was going to a hospital instead of a glue factory will forever haunt me…

[@Anonymous_Individual]

Same thing happened here! Although we were given history lessons about soviet Russia at the same time so it made a lot more sense.

[@Carmiineh]

Well USA it's not great either compared xD

[@handsomeboi3767]

How else could they have explained it to you guys? The ussr was a fascist dictatorship.

[@Carmiineh]

@@handsomeboi3767 Not facist, but a dictatorship of the proletariat. A fascist dictatorship was Nazist German.
Not surprised that you got confused x)

[@dylanroemmele906]

@@Carmiineh Nazi Germany was not Fascist, it was National Socialist.
The german NatSoc was created in 1919, Mussolini’s Fascists came about in 1921.
There are little similarities between the 2.

[@tiramisudragon]

The book Animal Farm lives rent-free in my head. And I haven't read that book since high school.

[@asafupps]

Should I be concerned?

[@Reginald_Ritmo]

The funniest part is that George Orwell was a Social Democrat. A lot of people took the books message further than Orwell hoped, including the movie team.

[@wolfae2837]

He wasn’t a social Democrat, he was a full socialist. He just hated the USSR because it wasn’t the proper form of socialism in his eyes because it was authoritarian. He criticized capitalism just as much. He fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, alongside communists and anarchists (the political kind that wants communal support not the super villain kind)

[@picollojr9009]

​@@wolfae2837 it never is propper yet it always turns out the same way

[@wolfae2837]

@@picollojr9009 That's just historically ignorant. Just because things have been a way, doesn't mean it can only be that way. Effectively, what Orwell and others are pushing for is a completely different ideology, just with a similar name. The US or USSR stopped any non-USSR nation from coming around

[@bullrun2772]

I guess your just your just being abitch

[@bullrun2772]

@@wolfae2837 hated it because it was communist

[@salemtyphonos]

as someone who read the book then watched the movie in 5th grade at school i can say it’s all a fever dream of red scare

[@saborevolutionarychief6458]

I remember reading Animal Farm after learning about the Russian Revolution in my history class. The irony of me reading the book in English class right after learning that. Anyways, I watched your review about the movie and everything seems pretty accurate to the book strangely…Except for the ending. I guess they wanted to give it a “good” ending despite the ending of the book being dark and bleak, trying to send a message rather than a clear conclusion.

[@MachPotato]

That's not irony, it's coincidence. They are commonly confused. Irony is when something that when something is expected to occur, the opposite happens while coincidence is simply two similar things happening in quick succession with no clear connection

[@saborevolutionarychief6458]

@@MachPotato ….Okay?
Had nothing to do with my point, but uh…Alrighty, I guess.

[@MachPotato]

@@saborevolutionarychief6458 I just meant to correct your use of "irony" so you don't use it wrong in the future

[@saborevolutionarychief6458]

@@MachPotato Thanks for being concerned, then? I’m just confused because I wasn’t expecting a reply correcting me, but okay.

[@shadoeboi212]

the ending was changed at the behest of CIA investors

[@DragonFries12]

This movie is honestly so wild to watch because the tone flips so abruptly. Like, one second the animals are in a goofy fight with the farmers, knocking them on their buts with silly sound effects. The next, several dead animals are bleeding out on the ground under an ominous, grey sky. It's like the movie can't decide whether it's for kids or not.

[@phabiorules]

I haven’t see, it but could that tonal shift be intentional?
Like them fighting the farmers is supposed to represent stories of glory in war being a sense of pride, while minimizing the cold reality of how terrible violence is and the cost it has? Like at a young age, Americans are taught about Washington crossing the Delaware and Americans beating the British, but we aren’t taught about how gruesome the conflict truly was.
I know there is a film called “in this corner of the world” which is very similar in that despite it taking place in wartime Japan, is pretty happy until the scene about the atomic bomb.

[@DragonFries12]

@@phabiorules Possibly, but it's just so jarring either way.

[@therobustempyrean1436]

Okay, but a good children's story can have dark, and grim themes in it. Like C.S. Lewis said, "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest".

[@DragonFries12]

@therobustempyrean1436 That's true, but it was still so jarring. Caught me way off guard lol. It got *really* dark sometimes, too. Like, I wouldn't want any kids under 12 seeing it.

[@thetwistedsamurai]

Films like this is why I get kind of upset over the argument "if you like anthro characters you have to be a furry". No. They're fantastic for storytelling.

[@j.e.h.648]

Animal Farm was an incredible accurate depiction, not of communism but of the History of the Soviet Union

[@olg7483]

Maybe both

[@MorbSquad420]

I read the book & watched the movie in high school. It's a really good book & I highly recommend it

[@memerindisguise]

Ikr and boxer god done dirty

[@hedge1247]

Can't believe this was so popular George Orwell made a book about it

[@_little_byrd_-0v0-]

I feel like all the old books we read in school were weird, like to kill a mockingbird and grapes of wrath. But my two favorites I genuinely like and own to this day were animal farm and lord of the flies (grapes of wrath had some good parts but I didn’t care for most of it). As a teen I actually liked how dark and chaotic these books were, especially with the deeper meanings they were trying to show about humanity

[@torpedokai4264]

This movie single handedly got me through 8th grade language arts when we started reading and learning about it

[@lukewarmmess5123]

My dad played this for me and my brothers when we were kids.
My six year old brain was so traumatized lol

[@aaron-gz]

Why tho
Was he political?
Did he just think "oh, cartoon = kid friendly"

[@andreafraustoz]

What's worse s that he dubs that scene as death camp

[@ashkitt7719]

Guessing he's MAGA now

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

Is your dad by any chance extremely based? Or did he just accidently show you something he should have?

[@maevblog9955]

​@@aaron-gz because it is a cartoon about farm animals

[@Ohnoitsthatguy-620]

Honestly the story had legs regardless of the CIAs involvement.

[@shorewall]

It's a story that everyone should hear, because it applies to more than just communism.

[@marocat4749]

Because its regardless from orwella very outspoken socialist.
Even why its a fable is probably to avoid censorship of the red scare, as "just an animal fable and totally kiddie stuff"

[@Daniel-wy2kx]

@@marocat4749 it’s literally a critique of communism and Stalinism, there’s no way it was getting censored by the US

[@melonsauce1474]

​@@Daniel-wy2kx Its funny that a lot of the issues pointed out are present in capitalism.

[@melonsauce1474]

​@@shorewall capitalism? I mean no one's retiring at the age they expect and billionaires have all the power and resources.

[@pennyforyourthots]

Something interesting worth noting: animal farm is specifically a critique of the Soviets, not socialism as a whole.
George Orwell himself was a Democratic socialist who aligned himself with the Spanish anarchists in the Spanish civil war. The book is more a critique of the Soviets from the perspective of a different branch of socialist ideology, rather than a critique of socialism in general. Make of that what you will, but I think it makes the analysis of the story much more interesting when you realize it's not just generic anti-communism, but specifically and ideological dispute between two different branches of socialist ideology (especially when Spanish anarchists were putting a lot of tension with the Soviets during the civil war. If I remember correctly the Soviet Union basically pulled out and abandoned them).
It's also worth noting that the ending of the film is different. The book has a much more pessimistic end where the pigs are seen as indistinguishable from their former human Masters (an allegory for, what in the mind of an anarchist would be a centralized State replacing another centralized state rather than any sort of meaningful change).
In the film, Napoleon is overthrown with the outside help of humans who buy the farm. If you take the humans at the beginning of the film as an allegory for tsarist Russia, then humans returning to overthrow Napoleon can be seen as a different system (presumably American capitalism) replacing the Soviet Union with what the American audience would have seen as be more positive alternative. Of course, since the humans were the initial bad guys that Napoleon replaced, you can also read this as a cyclical revolution of a status quo that changes, but always sucks for the people living under it (which is probably not the intended message).
Honestly, it's a very interesting story when you know the history behind it. It often gets boiled down to generic anti-communism, especially by Americans heavily influenced by the Red scare, so once you learn the history of its author you realize how much more nuanced it actually is.

[@BBPapercraftII]

I have seen this movie for a school project since we have read the Animal Farm book, definetly surprised me, and was not was I was expecting, especially with the different ending

[@dustinsearle4672]

This movie and book are awesome I have to say 1984 is the GOAT of Orwell but this is a really good quick read

[@MxCheefah]

Orwell was a racist, plagiarist and rapist.

[@camelopardalis84]

Orwell was a horrible man who put horrible ideas based on his horrible views in his horrible writing.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

@@camelopardalis84 Can you explain, lol

[@camelopardalis84]

@@HenrythePaleoGuy I'd rather point you towards a video: "George Orwell was a terrible human being" by Hakim. You don't have to like him or agree all that much with his overall views to see he has a point. Well, several, actually.

[@HenrythePaleoGuy]

@@camelopardalis84 That video is pretty shit. It glosses over and misrepresents a ton of his actual positions, and given he's a tankie, it's more so Hakim not liking him because Orwell hated Stalinists and by extension the USSR. The same Stalinists who sided with the fascists in Spain over the anarchists there.

[@aiiiia9971]

Watched this movie many times as a kid. May seem a bit much for a child but it was very insightful and educational. Human nature is scary... easier to grapple with using cartoon animals

[@marocat4749]

I think that was when he was heavenly censored due the redscare, and orwell being very loud, outspoken socialist, so much he insulted the bureaucrats, because it was not enough.
So yeah, its"just a childrens fable" for sake to bypass censorship likely.
Oh animals, or animation ignored,not new.
Through actually societial commentary s dealt way brutally honest in fantasy usually so , you arent wrong

[@Fresh_Mayo_Productions]

Me and my dad read this book recently, we liked it and we were wondering if there was a movie about it. I guess that there is! Thank you!

[@user-it8mf8qp5e]

When I read this book, I really liked how in the start of it .the animals were looking for freedom ,and they thought that by expulsing Mr Jone , they will finally acquired it .
but in the end nothing has changed, and the pigs ruled them like humans because they were smarter than the other animals.
It was fun to read it.

[@linkxmidna57]

This was such a good movie and the scene where the horse was sent away was so heart-wrenching. That donkey’s tearful brays were also very sad to listen to. I’m also not a hater of the ending despite its “happier” fate.

[@divebombexpert2619]

How come you don't hate the ending?

[@SM-ys8lw]

I haven't watch it just read it the ending was pretty dark no? I mean the pigs turned into humans, and continued there oprression of the farm

[@arhr2713]

Just to be clear, animal farm was an amazing book and so is the movie

[@ninetailedfox8022]

I am reading it again and its shine is still intact 60 years later

[@woshyyyyyyyyy]

my uncle recommended me this book when I was 13, it is a literal masterpiece! its simple yet not quite writing with subtle changes in the animals thinking is really believable
would recommend :D

[@fuxkag3908]

George Orwells Animal Farm Book was one hell of a Book
"All Animals are equal but some are more equal"

[@communistskeletonpiss]

I love the book for it's anti-authoritarian message and advocacy for education, but i hate how it's used as anti communist propaganda. The problem with some of the "communist" revolutions was that they weren't actually communist, they used a term that more people were comfortable with to hide the fact they were actually starting more dictatorial regimes, and instead of the US pointing out the lies, they just villainized communism as well.

[@TheRealNormanBates]

Well, it’s no different than how capitalism is villainized by wealthy Hollywood leftists, despite their capitalist lifestyles.
The bottom line is: is there truth to the message? When does something become a valid philosophical argument and something insidiously Orwellian?
Communism _has_ proven to be evil because wealthy people use the promise of shared collective power to form a system purposefully designed to control people like pigs on a farm (which I find the idea of the pigs being the villains in *Animal Farm* kind of funny, considering how they are treated in real life).
I like how *Animal Farm* is ambiguous enough that it doesn’t have to be _just_ Communism that is evil, but straightforward enough that even a kid can figure out that *anyone* who supports a system that revolves around “rules for thee, but not for me” is evil.

[@Saltasaur]

Username checks out.

[@melonsauce1474]

​@@Saltasaur George Orwell was a socialist and anti-captilism.

[@lordbee5972]

Fun fact, the book is NOT anti communist (or Marxist). it’s core ideals are manly anti-authoritarian, and show the dangers of allowing a group complete control over a nation.

[@chey7691]

To keep the books on the shelf of our "free" nation of the USA, it HAD to be satire or framed as critical of things they (the feds) are paranoid about to stay on the shelves. So people usually get told it's about the "dangers" of communism, when it just features it. You aren't wrong though it's definitely anti-authoritarian at it's core, and a stab at greed for power or money in politics.

[@ShiftylittleDemon]

THIS
I was gonna say this too, but the book isn't against communism at all
The part where the pigs start to look like men is basically showing how the communist leaders became the new oppressive bourgeoise as they became more authoritarian (I think I worded that right)
It was anti soviet union and stalin, not anti communist

[@peteynutt4104]

​@@ShiftylittleDemoncommunism will never work

[@merchuegrandmasterthortono8159]

It is absolutely anti-Marxist. Orwell was an anticommunist bastard who gave lists of suspected radicals, especially if they were black or Jewish, to the British authorities and spent almost the entirety of World War II fearmongering about some imaginary Stalinist bogeyman when the Soviets where fighting for their lives against fascism. This book is pure anti-communist cope, and its no wonder that the animated version was made using funding from the CIA.

[@MrRawrCEO]

Unfortunately most folk who watch this (and read 1984) will just use it to reinforce whatever beliefs they already hold.
And ignore how all encompassing and all important the lesson truly is.

[@El_Pendrive.]

I have this book!
It's amazing, I can't recommend it enough

[@calipurnioelreydelodio7141]

This film caused some funny issues late in the 2000s in Spain.
Animal Farm was titled "Rebelion en la granja" (Rebelion on the farm). Year 2000, Chicken Run is released in Spain under the title "Chicken Run: Evasion en la Granja" (Escape on the Farm, as a homage to "The Great Escape" of 1963).
People who thought that the funny chicken fim was already on Home Video take it so the kids could watch it, and found a political film. And people who didn't want to read the book for a test, later asked to themselves on the test "Where the hell is Rocky? There wasn't a pig at the film!"

[@Vabdlc]

When this movie released it must have been a... Party in the CIA

[@eletvizviz-redux]

as someone who actually read the book i can say its a great read and everyone should read it

[@shorewall]

Yeah, it's very accessible.

[@eletvizviz-redux]

@@shorewall i cant tell if this is sarcasm or not

[@shorewall]

@@eletvizviz-redux I meant it. I usually think that political fables and allegories are very dense, but Animal Farm is easily understood. It's more like a parable. You can easily grasp the surface story, but the more you know about history and human nature, the more you get out of it.
Compare to 1984, which is also by Orwell, and that is a hard read.

[@shorewall]

@@eletvizviz-redux I meant it. I usually think that political fables and allegories are very dense, but Animal Farm is easily understood. It's more like a parable. You can easily grasp the surface story, but the more you know about history and human nature, the more you get out of it.
Compare to 1984, which is also by Orwell, and that is a hard read.

[@eletvizviz-redux]

@@shorewall i actually am reading 1984 right now for my second time, animal farm is definitely a story about stalin when he was gaining power in russia

[@chaoswithinoneaxolotl6567]

Let’s go- I’m reading the book currently in my school right now and it’s really cool in my opinion. I think we might see this after reading this. I’m so excited

[@B.E.N_]

When I was like 8 and a total bookworm I saw the book translated to my language on the shelf at home and I thought it was a really long children's book and had nothing else to read I read it, it was surprisingly easy for an 8 year old to understand most of the ideas it was communicating.

[@provider-of-guardians7964]

Read the book for school when I was a teenager - I was so depressed over what happened to Boxer and just the book as a whole that I could never bring myself to watch the film (even if it does have a happier ending)

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

The ending of the book leaves a lot to be wanted. The movie makes sure to finish what it started

[@nocturnenugget]

Animal farm doesn't actually have an anti leftist rhetoric
Its just anti Stalin
Snowball is often portrayed as being the more moral one than napoleon
Snowball is also representing Trotsky, who was a very very radical communist, it's simply Orwell romanticizing Trotsky and calling Stalin a tyrant and a traitor for betraying the initial values of the Russian revolution, as set about by Lenin, or old major in the book/film

[@AnarchoTak]

wow you're the only one in this comment section with a brain. however I disagree it is anti leftist cuz it paints that all leftism leads to corruption and unnatural. it's anti Communist propaganda. it doesn't go into any of the nuances.

[@nocturnenugget]

@@AnarchoTak not exactly, keep in mind Orwell himself was quite left leaning, not a communist per say but certainly had some very left leaning sympathies, the book if anything is trying to say that Lenin's ideas were good, but Stalin was a power hungry maniac, and that Trotsky was the one who would have carried out Lenin's vision, and tbh, it was somewhat typical of more left wing commentators who also didn't like Stalin to Saintify Trotsky, so no it's not entirely anti communist, ig one could say it's anti Stalin era communism? It's a bit hard to tell

[@Saltasaur]

Trotsky would have carried out just as many atrocities. He had goals of expansionism and irredentism for the Union and likely would have tried to conquer Eastern Europe.

[@nocturnenugget]

@@Saltasaur oh yeah absolutely, Trotsky was completely out of his mind, not defending him at all, but it was just quite common for anti Stalin left leaning people at the time to romanticize a USSR under Trotsky as having been closer to Lenin's vision

[@dansmith1661]

The Russian revolution was ECHOESforeigners funded by the bankers, to murder the family of a beloved Russian monarch. They tried the same in Germany and Hitler said no. Constant terrorism in Germany until those people got sent away.

[@Retroboy-qb4li]

I haven't seen this movie, but something really funny to me is that a ranking channel described the scene where the cows stomp the pigs to death scene as "when the cows do not look like nice cows" 🤣🤣

[@DellDivioDevoe]

I remember reading this last month in my english class, making an entire paragraph of what the animals could do. I remember a kid wrote something of the animals planning to kill the farmer, the book was twisted.

[@bernardomarkuskampffdemelo4323]

Something that i find very curious about the original book, is that some see it as anticapitalist, while others see it as anticommunist

[@HereTakeAFlower]

It's pretty clearly anti-both, tbf. It's a stern warning against the excesses that power allows when it's concentrated in the hand of a small elite with themselves as their own only priority and moderators.

[@riotkitty]

I didn’t realize this ever got an animated movie. Interesting, the book is very good so maybe I’ll check this out.

[@KillerCaitie]

I saw this movie as a very young child. It happened to come on after a movie I was watching, and since it was another cartoon, I watched it. Most of it went over my little head of course as I was 4 or 5 or so at the time, but I remember enough that the thumbnail alone told me what movie this was. I remember that scene.

[@ShadowFoxSF]

read the book. watched the movie (because spong the former followed by the latter is how we rolled in school)
revisited the movie recently and sad they didn't show the sheeps' transition from "4 leg good, 2 legs baaaad" to "4 legs good, 2 legs better"
I recall lots of revisions to the initial rules getting brought up.

[@thomasobrien1841]

Fun fact: this movie was actually the first animated film to be released in Britain

[@meoowowwmeoeomowmow]

animal farm is so good i actually cant express enough how much i love it

[@nicholascherneski]

The thing some people overlook when talking about this book is that the original idea of "all animals are equal" is only followed for a short time, and not by all of the animals. The pigs who named themselves leaders never fully committed to the idea the original pig (the old one) had, and their farm and the other animals suffered for it.

[@LvL_7_Mage]

Loved reading this book when I was 7, because it’s just a goofy book about animals making a government. In 15 now, and I’m seeing it play out in real time

[@randomfoxyboi8687]

One of the few books we read in School that I genuinely enjoyed reading

[@sceptile61]

Furry Fandom be like:

[@the_VHS_system2411]

My history teacher in my old school showed this to us for one term, absolutely insane

[@funnerfacts_121]

in the original novel, the book ends with napoleon becoming like mr jones and its just very depressing, meanwhile in the 1955 movie, benjamin upstarts a rebellion and successfully kill napoleon with a happier ending i guess 🤷‍♂️

[@cursorguy]

Honestly an Animal Farm movie sounds kinda badass

[@2luvanime4ever]

In high school we were forced to watch this while reading the actual book and I am still disturbed by the horse going to the glue factory scene. I think about that every once in a while.

[@TheRealNormanBates]

“Forced”

[@2luvanime4ever]

@@TheRealNormanBates yeah like we’d come to class and the teacher would put it on for the whole class period and that’s all we’d do while answering questions she provided. It was brutal.

[@chris.3711]

Welcome to the communist party comrade. Comply or... well... just comply.

[@TheSpy149]

My aunt got this for me and my siblings when we were not even double digits…. Scarred us

[@teddyfurstman1997]

One of Halas and Batchelor best British animated works. Ruddigore is also worth checking out. Feels like UPA more than Disney.

[@TheGuardianssorrow]

The book isn’t about communism and I really wish more people would finally realize this. Orwell even stated it’s not about communism.

[@MadameSomnambule]

That's what I'm thinking. The pigs remind me less of the working class communists and more of right wing fascists in the modern era, some of which are working class themselves. The whole "all animals are equal, but some are more equal to others" is more in line with right wing talking points than leftist or Marxist ones.

[@Saltasaur]

Huh, strange that everything in the film aligns perfectly with the events that formed the Soviet Union.
HMMMMMMMM.

[@marocat4749]

​​@@Saltasaurs said,itsnot about communism, its about avery sympathic shown good ideology perverted by greedy pigs. Especially stalin.
Look up communist ideas, and compare it to stain(or even the udssr), and how they match up.
As was said, its not about commun7sm, its about misguided or greedy pigs perverting it.
And putin with the stalin worship used, agigns with that as well.

[@ItsJustDoctor]

@@Saltasaur because Orwell really hated Stalin

[@puffena9013]

@@Saltasaur well yes, because it’s directly based off the rise of Stalinism from Leninism, to the point where many characters are intended to be 1:1 stand-ins for actual people like Stalin and Lenin.
But Orwell was a Marxist socialist, and his critiques of Stalinism did not come from a hatred of communism (by all accounts he could himself be labeled a communist) but from a critique of the state capitalist authoritarian structure of the Leninist and Stalinist USSR post-revolution.

[@Pleia_Ds]

Animal Farm actually shows what leads to 1984-middle class + lower class yeet the upper class but the middles just turn into the new tyrant uppers while the lowers get the shaft, then the cycle repeats every couple generations

[@victorio2005]

I read the book back in high school, it was INTENSE.
Graphic and also disturbing, the ending was gruesome, watching the pigs turn into what were they against.

[@FOX1MX]

I had this book in 8th grade of primary school (In Poland btw)
As I was and still am a huge history fan I kinda liked it and the movie in it self is well animated. Although my classmates couldn't agree less...

[@nikosnikos5082]

"anti-communist agenda of the cia" well that's rather insulting to Orwell

[@goldh2o543]

I would like to add, provided you're going to go over Animal Farm, that Orwell was critiquing Leninism and Stalinism in Animal Farm, and not communism broadly. It was meant to be about Authoritarians hijacking a workers revolution because the workers never had a chance to be educated. Orwell himself was actually anti-capitalist.
It just so happens that the US Government saw it as a convenient piece to claim was critiquing communism in general, when that was never the point of it.

[@CountSpartula]

Except it serves well to critique communism as well. All routes to communism lead through authoritarian waters.

[@goldh2o543]

@@CountSpartula That's the propagandistic shit that the US government wants to push. Mercantile and Feudal nations said all sorts of false shit about capitalism back when it was new too, because they knew capitalism was a better system for the people than mercantilism and feudalism. Same goes for socialism and communism.

[@CountSpartula]

@@goldh2o543 One problem with that: Its a false equivalence. No one has ever committed genocides in the name of Capitalism, not with proper state support behind them. Communism, and all the routes to it on the other hand have so much evidence as to their crimes against humanity that we're still digging up bodies. And still making them, for that matter, in the nations that are still trying it. Capitalism may enable terrible people to do terrible things, but its on a vastly lesser scale than that of everyone who ever attempted a go at Communism. And unlike the routes to Communism, it doesn't suppress genuinely good people either. The reason is simple: Capitalism does not justify anything that is not in the service of cementing the right to private property, of which it requires to exist. Communism however presents a complex utopic plan for the future and not only incentivizes a very specific lenses to view the world in, most importantly it presents a target for people. Is it any wonder why everyone except Capitalists require an outgroup to struggle against or be wary of? Not if you've actually read the texts at the foundation of it all.

[@puffena9013]

@@CountSpartula well that’s just nonsense. For example, look Chile, they had a democratically supported Marxist president come into power after overthrowing a dictatorship. Then the US funded a military revolt against him and placed a brutal murderous dictator in charge, but that sounds to me like an evil of capitalism far more than one of communism.

[@CountSpartula]

@@puffena9013 Your abilities of spotting the exception and attempting to present it as the rule is unparalleled.

[@alexcrazy1492]

Having finished the book for school last week I have to say, while the book was better it’s allegorical to the Russian revolution to such an extent that having any allegories, it’s pointless

[@atrumpetorsomethin5839]

I’m almost 90% sure I saw this in kindergarten because the teacher thought this was going to be cute.

[@kowaretatc8611]

I remember reading this in secondary
Forgot what year but tbh
Loved it ^^

[@angiejavonrt]

This is the movie I watched at school when I was physically and verbally attacked the same morning so I can try and forget about that traumatic experience

[@MsUlquiorra77]

I saw the live-action movie of Animal Farm.
The scene the horse's actual friends tell him where they're really taking him after spotting the butcher shop signature on the back of the cart and how desperately he tries to kick the door open, weak as he is, all while his friend chases after the truck is what killed me.

[@adamfires1252]

I hated learning about this book mostly because our teacher started the movie early on but only showed about 10 out of 70 minutes of it and showed us the rest when we finished READING the book we all hate this teacher and love him… cuz he would’ve failed us if we hadn’t.