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WITH THE APPROACH of the centennial of George Orwell's birth in June 2003, much attention is already turning to reassessments of his life and to the ongoing relevance in the new millennium of his masterwork, Nineteen Eighty-Four(1949).1 Easily neglected amid the hoopla is the magnificent little beast fable of totalitarianism which launched Orwell's fame and which he often called his "favorite" book, Animal Farm (1945). This essay looks at how changing historical conditions have altered the reception of Animal Farm in the last decade-since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in December 1991. My focus is on how differently Orwell's allegory is being encountered by new generations in the twenty-first century-who are not even old enough to remember the existence of the Soviet Union. Extended consideration is devoted to a representative example of these changes and their implications: the remarkable film adaptation of Animal Farm and how its technological marvels are transforming young viewers' experience of Orwell's allegory.
The Wonders of Animatronics
In October 1999, Turner Network Television broadcast its $24 million adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm, which was coproduced by Robert Halmi, Sr., and Hallmark Entertainment. The film is partly animated, with great British Shakespearean voice actors such as Patrick Stewart (Napoleon) and Peter Ustinov (Old Major) providing the animal voices.2
A refugee from Soviet-occupied Hungary during the early postwar era-and a man who also spent World War II in Budapest under Nazi rule-Halmi said that he intended to do Animal Farm for decades, but that the technology was not available for a sophisticated animated version. Jim Henson's Creature Shop, a cutting-edge voice-tech firm, helped provide the combination live-action and animated effects that the movie incorporates.3
The new adaptation of Animal Farm-- the first since the 1955 British version by the husband-wife team of John Halas and Joy Batcheler-occurred as the news media were commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Orwell's Nineteen EightyFour, originally published in June 1949. As a result, Orwell's Aesopian fable was lost in the long shadow of Nineteen EightyFour.
It may take longer to watch Halmi's two-hour adaptation of Animal Farm than to read Orwell's little allegory of revolution and totalitarianism. Given the entertainment preferences in the age of the mass media, however, it is likely that many people in the future-especially...