The film version of Animal Farm was released to acclaim six decades ago. There was a gala launch at the United Nations in New York in 1954 and the film was praised by national newspapers. The British out-Disney Disney was one headline.
George Orwell's novella remains a set book on school curriculums, and his satire has lost none of its relevance in the modern age (All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others).
The story of how his book was turned into Britain's first animated feature film is fascinating, not least because the movie was funded by America's Central Intelligence Agency.
Great Teaching Tools For Reading George Orwell's Animal Farm In Ks4 English
The truth about the CIA's involvement was kept hidden for 20 years until, in 1974, Everette Howard Hunt revealed the story in his book Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent.
On January 21, 1950, when Orwell died at the age of 46, New Yorker Hunt had been part of the CIA's Psychological Warfare Workshop and he had been sent to obtain the screen rights to Animal Farm from Orwell's widow Sonia.
Some people believe that Hunt exaggerated his own role in sealing the deal – he supposedly promised Mrs Orwell that he would arrange for her to meet her favourite star, Clark Gable – but he was certainly involved in getting the film off the ground.
Animal Farm By George Orwell (theatre) — The Chocolate Church Arts Center
To add to the Orwellian nature of the story, it is interesting to note that Hunt later found notoriety as part of team that broke into Watergate.
Hunt chose as the film’s producer Louis De Rochemont, the creator of The March of Time newsreel films. They decided to use English film company Halas & Batchelor (run by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor) as the studio to actually make the film.
Why did the CIA choose England as the place to make the film? They were impressed by the advertisement commercials Halas and Batchelor had made for Kelloggs Cornflakes, and by the wartime propaganda films the couple had been behind.
Animal Farm: All Animals Are Equal. Some Are More Equal Than Others. (english Edition) Ebook
The CIA also thought it would be cheaper to make the film in England and believed, with good reason, that they would be able to keep the English animators in the dark about who was funding the film.
In addition, they didn't trust the political leanings of some American illustrators. And the British government was supposedly happy with a film full of anti-Russian propaganda at a time when the Cold War was in full blast.
Vivien Halas, the daughter of the film’s directors, has said: I don’t believe that my parents were aware of any CIA involvement at the time.
Animal Farm (1954)
In the bonus extras for the new high-definition DVD, Howard Whitaker, one of the 80 animators who worked on the film concurred, saying: We didn't realise at the time. We thought it was just a farm story.
Work on the film began in 1951 and took three years to complete. Watching it 60 years on is an unemotional experience. The satire is still powerful and Napoleon, the tyrant pig who represents Joseph Stalin, is an unforgettable character.
Although the animation is good – grey and grim and completely against the cheery Disney grain – the film itself is a historical curiosity rather than a piece of entertainment.
Animal Farm By George Orwell Timeline
You are certainly left with admiration for the work of veteran character actor Maurice Denham, who provides the voices of every human and animal in the film.
His angry pig noises are exquisite and it is amusing to consider, in the mix of all the political intrigue, that the main concern from the British authorities was that Denham was making Old Major pig sound too much like Winston Churchill.
Perhaps it's best just to view the film as interesting historical cartoon propaganda, with a memorable plot. The Russians certainly hated the way the film lampooned their secret meetings, and talk of comradeship and five-year plans.
Michayla Grbich
And making a CIA-funded film didn't harm Halas & Batchelor in the long run. They went on to have many commercial and creative successes – including a cartoon series about The Osmonds.
The one person who surely would not have been happy about it all would have been Orwell himself, not least for the way the ending to his novel was changed.
In the optimistic CIA-approved ending to the film, the (non-pig) animals ask for help from the outside. They are helped, enabling them to crush the evil Stalin ruler.For Banned Books Week 2021, we’re kicking off a new tradition at the Libraries by focusing on a single title that has been frequently challenged throughout history. The American Libraries Association Office for Intellectual Freedom keeps a chronological record of censorship attempts to remove books from libraries and schools, and for this year’s festivities we explore a work of both political and literary importance, George Orwell’s controversial classic Animal Farm.
Animal Farm Remastered
An allegorical fairy tale on the dangers of authoritarianism and how “absolute power corrupts absolutely, ” Orwell uses the setting of an animal uprising against their human masters on an English farm as an indirect representation of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the totalitarian Stalinist era to follow. The work explores and comments on the dangers of authoritarian control and the cult of personality inherent within it, and reminds us that even the noblest of causes can be subverted by power and greed.
Upon publication and throughout the years, Orwell’s novella has been accused by detractors as Communist propaganda and a seditious call to overthrow organized states. Various attempts to remove the book from libraries have occurred and the title continues to appear on numerous lists of “problem books.” So strong was its perceived threat to national security, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covertly purchased the film rights from the Orwell estate and financed an animated version of the film; altering multiple plot points and changing the ending in an effort to “combat the culture of communism.”
1954 animated version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Directed by John Halas & Joy Batchelor. Commissioned and financed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Musings On 'animal Farm': Are All Animals Equal?
Listed below you’ll find access to Orwell’s novella and several related resources in our collection. All print materials are available for check-out and electronic resources may be viewed online. Learn more about Banned Books Week at the link provided and support the freedom to read and express ideas, even those that some consider to be unorthodox or unpopular.
“George Orwell's famous satire of the Soviet Union, in which all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. A satire on totalitarianism in which farm animals overthrow their human owner and set up their own government” - Publisher Description.
“In the staged dramatic reading version of this timely allegory you will meet beasts whose prototypes have dominated news headlines for many fearful years. Opening on a note of joyous triumph for the creatures who have emancipated themselves from the cruel mastery of a human owner, the reading mounts inexorably to a climax of disillusionment in which the other animals discover themselves now subject to the rule of even more ruthless autocrats: the greedy, cunning pigs. Intermingling humor and drama, Animal Farm wrings the emotions of its listeners, leaving audiences shaken with the tale of a tragedy that happened in a mythical barnyard far away but could happen in our own backyard.” - Publisher Description
Key Quotes From Novel Animal Farm
“This edition is being published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of its original U.S. publication. It features 100 full-color and halftone illustrations by world-renowned artist Ralph Steadman.” - Publisher Description.
“Special features: new digital restoration; audio commentary by film historian Brian Sibley; Down on 'Animal farm' featurette presented by Tony Robinson; scenes as told through original storyboards; liner notes by author and professor Karl Cohen.” - Publisher Description.
“Since its release in 1954, scholars have been aware of the Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in the making of the controversial animated motion picture adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm. In Orwell Subverted, Daniel Leab gives an authoritative and well-documented account of the CIA's powerful influence on the film.Recently, a number of works have been written-notably, those by Frances Stoner Saunders and Tony Shaw-that make reference to the underlying governmental control surrounding Animal Farm. Yet there is still much speculation and confusion as to the depth of the CIA's interference. Leab continues where these authors left off, exploring the CIA's dominant hand through extensive research and by giving fascinating details of the agency's overt and subtle influences on the making of the film.” - Publisher Description
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