ANIMAL FARM (1999)

Directed by: John Stephenson

Based on the novel by: George Orwell

Starring: Julia Ormond, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian Holm, Paul Scofield, Pete Postlethwaite, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peter Ustinov, Charles Dale, Jean Beith, Caroline Gray, Alan Stanford, Gail Fitzpatrick, Gerard Walsh

91 minutes

(PG - mild language, adult themes, adult situations, violence)

PLOT:

A direct allegory to the rise of Stalinist Russia, this movie combines George Orwell's parable with animatronics and voice characterizations by popular actors and actresses. Following a speech made by a venerable pig named Old Major (Lenin), the animals of Manor Farm form their own philosophy of Animalism (Communism), and lead a successful revolution orchestrated primarily by the pig Snowball (Trotsky), who tries to implement Old Major's ideas to the letter. Snowballs idealism does not save him when he is exiled by a more ambitious pig named Napoleon (Stalin), who seizes power over the farm, and proceeds to reshape Old Major's ideas to his own liking and bringing the animals into a darker existence than they had ever dreamed.

TRAILER: