‘Animal Farm’: Authoritarianism Dressed Up as Altruism

Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ warns that revolutions can betray freedom.

A scene from "Animal Farm." The film is a good lesson in communism. Distributors Corporation of America

NR | 1 h 12 min | Drama | 1954

Loosely based on George Orwell’s eponymous novella, the mid-20th century animated film “Animal Farm” warns that socialist-communist propaganda always masquerades as altruism. This is like another late-20th-century Orwellian film, “1984,” that warns of the deceptions of totalitarianism.