History WesternAnimation / AnimalFarm1954

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Benjamin is less of a grouch and a cynic in this movie, and his friendship with Boxer is played up a lot more, with several scenes showing him caring for the injured Boxer.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The pigs. Except for Old Major, who ''did'' want a better life for all animals (and as opposed to his book counterpart never declared all humans the enemy; his bile was only reseved for Jones)... and ''possibly'' for Snowball, who seems to at least have been well-intentioned even if he did more harm than good (and is chased off/killed before the pigs' tyranny reaches true heights). But except for those two, there's no such thing as a non-evil pig in this movie; all of them are perfectly summed up in this line:

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When inspecting Jones's house, Boxer is seen pushing over a stack of beer crates, which tragically foreshadows his fate of being sold by the pigs for liquor.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When inspecting Jones's house, Boxer is seen pushing over a stack of beer crates, which tragiccally foreshadows how he will be solod by the pigs for liquor.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The main diversion from the book. In the film pig delegates from other farms arrive to see Napoleon unveil the revised commandment: "All animals are equal but some animal are more equal than others". This is the final straw and that night while the pigs are toasting to their success, Benjamin briefly hallucinates that the pigs have Jones' face (as opposed to becoming humans as in the book) then leads a revolt against them with an army of animals from farms all over -- the dogs are too drunk to do their job and Napoleon is quickly stomped to death.

The film's financing was done either in full or in part by the [=CIA=] -- and no, the filmmakers themselves were not aware of this fact. In addition to providing the money they also influenced the production: making Snowball less sympathetic and of course changing the ending to something more upbeat to inspire anti-communist resistance. The CIA would provide similar influence for another Orwell adaptation, ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', a couple years later.

The first screen adaptation of Creator/GeorgeOrwell's [[Literature/AnimalFarm classic satire]] released in 1954 and the first full-length animated film made by Great Britain to get a theatrical release (the actual first feature was a navy training film for sailors) by Halas and Batchelor, as well as [[AnimationAgeGhetto the first one to be aimed at adult audiences]]. The film has only two credited voice actors: Gordon Heath as the narrator and Maurice Denham, who voiced all the animals and humans!

* ThisIsUnforgivable: When word gets out about the utter disaster Animal Farm has become, what the pigs are doing and their plan to spread their totalitarian ideology across the world, the animals of the other farms, regardless of their own welfare, '''are completely infuriated'''. They rise up, joining forces to become an army the world has never seen the like of, [[CurbStompBattle and completely crush them in the ending]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the book, a small group of pigs protested Napoleon's coup but were quickly silenced and later killed by the dogs. Here none of the pigs make any objections and are happy to go along with Napoleon's coup.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Snowball and Napoleon are introduced butting to the head of a line of pigs to hear Old Major speak, but Snowball merely wants a good view while Napoleon is more aggressive in doing so, glaring at Squealer to get him to make room, and later grunts aggressively at a young lamb and its mother for bleating in fear during the speech, despite Old Major addressing them kindly.

* MirrorCharacter: Snowball and Napoleon. When the first winter after the rebellion comes there are shortages due to the pigs' inexperience. But both pigs only throw themselves into their own ambitions rather than work to solve the immediate hunger problem: Snowball and his windmill, Napoleon and his plans for a coup. This was done at the request of the [=CIA=] who were worried that Snowball would come off too sympathetically to audiences.

* MusicalPastiche: The music uses different instruments to represent different animals, in a similar style to ''Music/PeterAndTheWolf''.

* DisabledInTheAdaptation: Not only does Boxer still collapse due to overworking and his age catching up with him, but he was shot in the leg during the battle of the windmill, and said leg never heals.

* OffModel: Napoleon "benevolently" rescues a litter of ''white'' puppies (or ''cream'' depending on the film quality) from Jones' house and spends months nurturing them; he later asserts his hegemony while flanked by a team of ''black'' guard dogs. Averted in a restored version where the puppies are grey in all their scenes.

* AnimalTalk: Downplayed compared to the book. The animals ''do'' talk and communicate with one another, but they don't hold conversations the way they did in the book. The pigs are by far the most talkative, and the only ones who speak perfectly; the other animals are various degrees of SpeechImpairedAnimal who either communicate with body language or animalistic sounds, or speek with a ''very'' heavy AnimalSpeciesAccent.

** Napoleon is constantly depicted as such, even when startled he maintains a grimace... and even when affably chuckling at the baby pigs in the front yard he looks more like he's doing a low-key EvilLaugh. Only twice in the movie is his expression completely wicened; the first tinme is whenthe windmill blows up and the second time is when [[spoiler: he realises the other animals are going to kill him]].

* In fact, it's a pretty common trait among the pigs. Squealer's the one pig who ''isn't'' a PerpetualFrowner; he displays the fullest range of emotions of all the animals... though even he's quick to frown and it's pretty clear that his nobler emotions are all faked (see CrocodileTears above).

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: ''All'' of the pigs summed up in this line:

* ArcWords: "Work More and Eat Less"
* AscendedExtra: Benjamin the donkey is essentially the main character.

** Snowball is killed by the dogs.

* PerpetualFrowner: Napoleon is constantly depicted as such, even when startled he maintains a grimace. That said, he does chuckle while watching baby pigs playing in the front yard. The only time his expression is completely widened is when [[spoiler: he realises the other animals are going to kill him]].

* TheVoiceless: Mr. Jones doesn't say much more than a few incoherently mumbled words, while his pigs spend the whole film talking to each other.