Animal Farm

Director: Joy Batchelor, John Halas

1954 / 72min / DCP

George Orwell’s satirical allegory of idealism souring into totalitarianism, born of his disillusion with the Soviet communist experiment, gets an inspired adaptation in the UK’s first feature-length animated film. Prize pig Old Major inspires an animal uprising against drunken farm owner Mr. Jones, but the resulting socialist utopia in which “all animals are equal” will be short-lived, as Saddleback boar Napoleon—a stand-in for Joe Stalin—establishes himself as first among equals by brute force, and commences a reign of terror. Featuring a tour de force of voice acting by Maurice Denham, who provides every voice (and every “oink”) in this junior high classroom staple.

2K digital remaster of internegative restoration photochemically performed from original Technicolor negatives by Vivien Halas in 2014 for the 60th Anniversary