Andy Serkis and his star-studded cast had a barnyard bash at the NYC premiere of Angel Studio’s Animal Farm.
Unlike other high school English class staples like The Great Gatsby or The Outsiders, George Orwell’s Animal Farm doesn’t have any modern adaptations — until now. On April 22 in New York City, Angel Studios premiered Animal Farm, an animated, kid-friendly retelling of the 1945 literary classic directed by Andy Serkis.
An allegory for the 1917 Russian Revolution, Orwell’s novel and Serkis’ adaptation follow farm animals who overthrow their human owners and build a new, equal society. As they attempt to function with newfound freedom, they become torn between the teachings of pigs Snowball (Laverne Cox) and Napoleon (Seth Rogen). Napoleon slowly gains power over the farm, becoming an authoritarian dictator and turning the animals’ dream society into a nightmare.
Many members of the movie’s star-studded cast — including Serkis, Cox, Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson, Kathleen Turner, Gaten Matarazzo and Iman Vellani — attended the premiere, celebrating the film’s long-awaited release.
Serkis, who also voices multiple characters in the film, first encountered the allegorical novella when he was just 11 years old.
“It was a story that really gripped me,” he told The Knockturnal on the red carpet. “Made me think about things for the first time in a different way — in that literature, art can really change how you think and feel about things.”
Serkis told The Knockturnal that he first conceptualized the adaptation 15 years ago while filming Rise of the Planet of the Apes. However, the Lord of the Rings actor’s vision for the film evolved over time.
“Originally, we were gonna make it as a performance capture movie — you know, actors playing all the animals — and then we realized that it should retain the innocence that is in the book,” he added. “Orwell writes about animals rather than human beings; he’s being allegorical. And we wanted to maintain the fairytale, the fable… and that’s why we decided to make an animation.”
The film may have taken over a decade to reach its final form, but Serkis maintains that the message of Animal Farm remains applicable to the modern day.
“I mean the themes [of the film] are all exactly what [Orwell] was writing about 80 years ago, about surveillance and the destruction of truth and power corrupting,” he explained. “And all of those themes just seem to be coming more and more relevant as the years went on while we were making this film.”
Although Serkis’ film remains true to the themes of the book, it also adds some new elements to the story. The movie introduces viewers to new characters like Lucky the piglet (Matarazzo), giving the film a more conclusive ending than its source material. Vellani, who plays twin piglets Puff and Tammy, believes these changes will resonate with younger audiences.
“All power is always gonna corrupt, but you know, these cycles are made by people. These institutions are made by people and therefore can also be reinvented by people,” she told The Knocturnal on the red carpet. “I think what this movie does is expand on Orwell’s novel, almost continuing it to an ending where you come out of it a little hopeful for your own future.”
Like Vellani, Cox also hopes the film will inspire young people.
“And there’s an understanding now [among young people] about how fascism works, about how authoritative regimes work. And so this is a wonderful addition to their education,” she explained to The Knockturnal while on the red carpet. “Ideally, they watch Animal Farm, and they go and read more Orwell, then they go and learn more about the Bolshevik revolution and all the things that inspired this… and then see the parallels between that and what is going on with in this country and globally right now, and understand that we have to fight back against this.”
Animal Farm is in theatres May 1.
