Animal Farm (1954 film)

***Animal Farm*** is a 1954 adult animated film directed by animators John Halas and Joy Batchelor, which is now considered a 1950s propaganda piece against communism. It was produced by Halas and Batchelor and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell. It was the first British animated feature, and one of the first adult animated feature films.

Maurice Denham provided the voice for all the animals in the film.

## Plot

Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner, Mr. Jones. Prize pig Old Major encourages the farm animals to oust Jones, and teaches them the revolutionary song "Beasts of England" before suddenly dying. Having not been fed, the animals break into the storehouse and help themselves. They drive Jones away, rename the farm "Animal Farm", and destroy the tools of oppression that had been used against them. They decide against living in the farmhouse, though Saddleback boar Napoleon is interested and begins to secretly raise an abandoned litter of puppies.

The Commandments of Animalism are written on a barn wall, the most important being: "All animals are equal". The farm runs smoothly and food becomes plentiful. The pigs become the leaders and claim special food items "by virtue of their brainwork". Old Major's successor Snowball wants a windmill, while Napoleon opposes it and has his dogs chase Snowball away, denouncing him as a traitor and declaring himself leader. He abolishes farm policy meetings, appropriates all decision-making, and advances the windmill plan that he had snubbed when his rival proposed it.

The pigs alter their laws. "No animal shall sleep in a bed" becomes "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets". Napoleon negotiates with Mr. Whymper to trade the hens' eggs for jellies and jams. The hens revolt by throwing their eggs at the pigs when the pigs attempt to seize the eggs by force. To impose his will through fear, Napoleon holds a show trial where a sheep and a duck are accused as traitors and butchered by the dogs. Their blood is used to append to the commandment "No animal shall kill another animal" the words "without cause". Napoleon bans "Beasts of England", declaring the revolution complete and the dream of Animal Farm realised.

A group of farmers attack Animal Farm and Jones blows up the windmill with himself inside. The animals win the battle at a great cost of lives. Boxer the workhorse, wounded, works to rebuild the windmill until he is gravely injured in an accident. Napoleon has a van take Boxer away, which Benjamin the donkey recognises as being from Whymper's glue factory. Napoleon's second-in-command Squealer delivers a sham eulogy, claiming Boxer's last words were to glorify Napoleon. The animals see through the propaganda but are driven away by the snarling dogs. The pigs toast Boxer's memory with whisky they bought with his life.

Years pass and Napoleon has expanded the neighbouring farms into an enterprise. The pigs walk upright, carry whips, drink alcohol and wear clothes. The Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Napoleon holds a dinner party for a delegation of outside pigs, who congratulate him on having the hardest-working and lowest-consuming animals in the country. They toast a future where pigs own farms everywhere. Benjamin imagines the pigs have taken on the likeness of Mr. Jones.

Acknowledging their situation is even worse than before the revolution, the animals storm the farmhouse. The guard dogs are too drunk to respond while the animals smash through the house, trample Napoleon and the pigs to death, and reclaim the farm.