Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a 1954 adult animated drama film directed by documentarians John Halas and Joy Batchelor. It was produced by Halas and Batchelor and funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who also made changes to the original script. Based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell, Maurice Denham provides the voice for all the animals in the film. The rights for a film adaptation were purchased from Orwell's widow after she was approached by agents working for the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), a branch of the CIA that dealt with the use of culture to combat communism. Although a financial failure, taking fifteen years to generate a profit, the film quickly became a staple in classrooms across the United Kingdom, the United States and other English-speaking countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand into the 2000s. Plot Manor Farm is mismanaged by its drunken owner, Mr. Jones. Prize pig Old Major encourages the farm animals to oust Jones, and teaches them the revolutionary song "Beasts of England" before his death. Due to not being fed, Major's successor Snowball leads the animals into the storehouse for food; then leads them into chasing Jones away, renaming the farm "Animal Farm", and destroying the tools of oppression that had been used against them. They decide against living in the farmhouse, though Saddleback boar Napoleon is interested and begins to secretly raise an abandoned litter of puppies.