‘Animal Farm’ Review Thread

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten

Critics Consensus: N/A

Metacritic: 33 (8 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter – Geared to younger children for inexplicable reasons, this version sacrifices the story’s powerful political and social themes in favor of by-the-numbers plotting.

William Bibbiani, TheWrap – The problem isn’t that the new 'Animal Farm' is unfaithful, it’s that the changes aren’t an improvement. Most of them only call attention to the power of Orwell’s novella, and the comparative powerlessness of this new version.

Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence D – Parables about the corrupting influence of power and crude fart jokes can theoretically co-exist, just like animals in the barnyard. However, they need proper shepherding. As opposed to what Serkis did — drive the whole damn movie off a cliff.

Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph (UK) 1/5 – The bizarre achievement of this new film is to make us feel trapped and punished through every phase of the story. It looks so unremittingly horrid, well before Napoleon’s ascendancy to become a fascist, paranoid despot.

Wendy Ide, Screen International – While it may struggle to satisfy diehard Orwell purists, the film still takes a political stance and delivers an emphatic message celebrating equality and the power of the collective.

Peter Debruge, Variety – Enough of Orwell’s raw material remains for “Animal Farm” to be recognizable but the film is far too disorderly to substitute for the book. Woe to the student who tries watching this toon instead of doing the reading.

SYNOPSIS:

From visionary director Andy Serkis, and featuring the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Glenn Close, and Woody Harrelson, comes a satirical allegory of revolution and power. Animal Farm traces how a movement for equality is systematically corrupted. As the pigs consolidate control, truth is erased, dissent is crushed, and the farm descends into a ruthless dictatorship—fulfilling Orwell’s warning about the dangers of communism.

CAST:

• Seth Rogen as Napoleon
• Gaten Matarazzo as Lucky
• Steve Buscemi as Mr. Whymper
• Glenn Close as Freida Pilkington
• Laverne Cox as Snowball
• Kieran Culkin as Squealer
• Woody Harrelson as Boxer
• Jim Parsons as Carl / Sheep
• Andy Serkis as Mr. Jones / Old Major / Randolph
• Kathleen Turner as Benjamin
• Iman Vellani as Puff / Tammy

DIRECTED BY: Andy Serkis

SCREENPLAY BY: Nicholas Stoller

BASED ON ANIMAL FARM BY: George Orwell

PRODUCED BY: Andy Serkis, Adam Nagle, Dave Rosenbaum, Jonathan Cavendish

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: John Blas, Phil Brown, Mark Burton, Rafi Crohn, Joe Della Rosa, Ivan Epstein, Woody Harrelson, Richard Hodsden, Antony Hunt, Ollie McGovern, Hans Oerlemans, Brandon Purdie, Matt Reeves, Phil Robertson, Duncan Rodger, Nicholas Stoller, Larry Taube, Will Tennant, Rupert Wyatt

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Amos Sussigan

EDITED BY: Kevin Pavlovic

MUSIC BY: Heitor Pereira

CASTING BY: Margery Simkin

RUNTIME: 96 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2026