Animal Farm (1999)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of my all time favorites.

Let's be realistic.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Although the story was confusing, and didn't seem greatly to resemble what I remember of reading Orwell's gripping masterpiece, I remained transfixed by the way in which the animals behaved, and was kept continually wondering how on earth they had been persuaded to speak and perform in the way they apparently seemed to be doing.Other reviewers have pointed out how the original novel has been traduced, re-written and distorted, and I'm happy to agree with them. But I remain fascinated by the visual trickery. I didn't recognise any of the voices of well-known actors, Ustinov, Scofield, Stewart, etc, although I certainly recognised Postlethwaite from The Usual Suspects. The emphasis on the humans struck me as the most intrusive part of the narrative. The farm setting also impressed me as rurally idyllic. Worth a look for the ingeniously convincing animatronics, but not otherwise.

I read the book for English class and studied the themes and meanings. By the time, we were done the questions for the book, we watched the movie. Hell, it was a lot worse than the book.The voice cast features Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammar, and that was the only good thing. The rest was just crap.The movie was nothing like the book. There was no Clover or Mr. Whymper. It was Jessie who told the story and questioned how things should be. It was also ridiculous how overtime, the men started to understand Napoleon. There were a couple of other ridiculous things--Napoleon wore a suit, animals actually got distracted by the television, actually seeing Squealer's writing with the paint. Too much was cut out too.The ending was bad too. It just made no sense. Even if it leads to the viewer's imagination, it just wasn't real. In fact, nothing from the movie felt real. The movie fails to catch attention.So, if you want an excuse to vomit and get sick, watch this movie. It will do you good for missing something else you'd hate.

I won't rehash the comments of others too much, but as a high school English teacher, I was quite disappointed with this version. It could have been a superior film due to its casting and modern technology. But, no, instead we get so many plot changes that the film loses its main message.When I show selections to my classes, I only use the animated version. It sticks closer to the plot, even though the only animals that speak are the pigs.Rent this version. Don't waste your money on buying it. Instead purchase the animated version on DVD, which also features an interesting extra on the making of the film.Long live Animal Farm, but not the 1999 inferior version!

Animal Farm (1999) was a larger budget movie for the Orwell classic Animal Farm. The movie sticks closely to the idea of the book, (the rise of communism), while making it accessible to a wide variety of audience, although the ending was really, well, "happy". But let's face it. No one wants to spend 10 dollars just to feel depressed unless they're die-hard Orwell fans, so the producers didn't really have a choice but to make it accessible if they were going to create a big budget movie. A good movie, but if your a die-hard classic stickler and you would rather have a low-budget Animal Farm movie which sticks more to the original, go for the older version.