Cast:
Maurice Denham (Voices of All Animals) and Gordon Heath (Narrator) Produced and Directed by Joy Batchelor and John Halas.
Review:
Being the first director to do a British animated feature is interesting, but to also note the contributions of Joy Batchelor in short films with her husband John Halas is just as clear to mention. Born in Watford, she expressed an interest in drawing from a young age, and she drove herself to earn a scholarship to the Watford School of Art (while also having an offer from Slade), but she desired to help her family while working in art without teaching. Her first line of work in animation would come in London for the studio of Dennis Connelly, although it did not last too long due to studio closure. After a while spent doing side work, she found an ad looking for animators, for which the man running it was Janos Halasz [born János Halász]. He had a studio in Hungary before having the chance for another one to set up in London. They would spend considerable time together over the years in various fields of art, such as freelance studiowork before being brought on to do work for an advertising agency with J. Walter Thompson in commercials, information films, and war propaganda. In 1940, Batchelor and Halas would marry. Halas and Batchelor would continue on with animation after Animal Farm (which while not a success at the time found a following later on), working on commissions and occasional work in television. Batchelor would retire in 1974 from filmmaking due to arthritis, although she would teach animation for years afterwards before her death in 1991 (Halas would work all the way until his death in 1995, having done six decades of animation work).
Animal Farm is technically the first British animated feature. Handling Ships (1945), a stop-motion animated film in color, was created for use in the British Admirality for training in the Royal Navy in 1945, but it was never formally released in theaters (despite a selection at the Cannes Film Festival; Halas felt it had limited appeal to audiences anyway) - it was directed by Alan Crick and Halas, but Batchelor was involved in the production as was the case with several projects (the two were involved with creating war information + propaganda shorts). For that film, the goal was simple: an instructional film made to guide one on piloting ships, navigation, and maneuverability. The feature was successful enough for another commissioned feature by the offices that led to Water for Firefighting (take one guess what it was about), but Animal Farm came after each and found a way to release in the theater...with its own interesting circumstances. For one, it was a project of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who funded the film as a tool of anticommunism (Halas and Batchelor however did not know this). One could go down the rabbit home about the story behind the CIA's plot for friendly anti-commie films for the masses, complete with a CIA head who would later be involves with Watergate...but here we are. The film is adapted from the 1945 novella of the same name by George Orwell (for which the film calls a "memorable fable" in its opening credit). Interestingly enough, I remember this as one of the first stories I read while in high school, since I found it on the shelf of my freshman English class (for which I carefully used spare time to read it gradually). There were several writers in the adaptation: Batchelor, Halas, Joseph Bryan III, Borden Mace, and Lothar Wolf were given credit for story development while Laurence Heath and Philip Stapp were left un-credited. In addition to directing, Batchelor and Halas also co-produced the film. Interestingly enough, the same year that this was released, the BBC would do a made-for-TV adaptation of Orwell's seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (done one year after an American live production, and a feature film would follow in 1956 - which was also a tool of the CIA). Both Orwell works would have another adaptation several decades later (Animal Farm in 1999 on television while the other was fittingly enough done in 1984).
The voices are not what I expected - for one, I assumed there would be more than one voice for the animals. Denham made his mark in acting for six decades beginning in 1934, starting with radio comedy and soon live television broadcasts that would suit him well for a variety of roles in British media. As for Heath, he was an American that had started in radio with New York's WMCA station before making his debut on Broadway with Deep Are the Roots in 1945. He would also do acting across the pond, such as live performances for BBC Television such as for a production of The Emperor Jones. So here we are with a film that is about animals seizing the means of revolution for their farm and all that comes with it with strife that reflects human nature...and a certain change from those who read it. It might not be a Disney production, but they sure do sing...in animal noises, for which you get to see an old pig die in the middle of it. Between that and animal cries in the first eleven minutes, one gets a pretty strange picture to start with. It actually isn't much of a talking animal picture, as the narration is the real guiding force with occasional noises, with a carefully controlled runtime of barely over an hour that makes it a curious venture, one that had to suit the powers that be alongside audiences (of sorts, since while it wasn't a major success at release it gradually found a following in later years). So....how about that ending? The novella had an ironic ending, one that talked about the nature of equality within animals and humans - in other words, the more things change, the more they stay the same, particularly when the rules keep moving. For the film, whether because of producer influence or director mindset, the ending is lighter in tone, ending on the opposite tone that will certainly not please those who desire faithful works (mostly) to the letter (for example, that key moment that ends the novella occurs just a few minutes before the climax takes place). For one thing, it is Benjamin the donkey (who never actually talks in the film, as compared to his gloom in the book) that takes action against Napoleon the pig (strangely enough, the donkey has been thought of as representing a variety of social classes within its allegory, but the big theory is that there is a little of Orwell himself within the character). Of course, if one thinks a fable needs an appropriate ending, it will be exactly the kind of thing one expects, so the decision is up to you. Of course, if you really want to see an adaptation that evidently messes up the adaptation even worse, you could try the 1999 TV adaptation, which worked with detailed effects and a cast of well-known actors (at least for Hallmark Films)...and completely missed the ending with a depiction of a self-destructing dictatorship that leads to a new group of humans coming into the farm (simply put, that is far more unforgivable given that this was literally 1999, so imagine spending millions of dollars with name actors and looking like a complete failure next to a modest little animated film that only has two voices). One wonders how Orwell would have felt about this creative side-step, if only because the full extent of who exactly funded it would only come out decades after that fact. As a whole, Animal Farm is a nice accomplishment, one that carries its points on the sleeve with decent results - perhaps it isn't exactly a great animated film for its era, but Halas and Batchelor manage well with a curious effort in adaptation that finds a balance in its fable without being sunk by its climax entirely.
Next Time: A film for the numbers...four different versions....two directors...it can only be from American International Pictures with Blood Bath (1966).
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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