A Conservative Studio Has Returned With an Adaptation of Animal Farm. It’s Not What You Think.

Movies The New Animal Farm Movie Satirizes a Very Different Target Angel Studios wants you to think the adaptation is about “the dangers of communism.” Others decry it as anti-capitalist. It’s neither. By Laura Miller Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Laura Miller? May 01, 20263:49 PM Photo illustration by Slate. Images via Secker & Warburg and Angel Studios. When first published in 1945, George Orwell’s Animal Farm featured a subtitle: A Fairy Story. It’s likely Orwell was being ironic in labeling his satire of the corruption of Russian communism this way, given that children, the assumed audience for fairy tales, have little interest in such matters as industrialization and collectivization. Fable might be a more accurate term, anyway, for a story like Animal Farm, a tale with a moral message in which anthropomorphized animals illustrate some enduring truths. But whatever you call it (the pedant in me must point out that Animal Farm is not technically an allegory), the book was meant for adults. Distilling the complex early history