Andy Serkis defends his Animal Farm movie as what Orwell wanted

The first responses to Andy Serkis’ star-packed animated re-imagining of George Orwell’s classic 1945 novel Animal Farm are in, and there’s a notable trend to them. The reviews aren’t all bad: A handful of writers at various outlets seem to be pretty okay with the updates Serkis and writer Nicholas Stoller made to Orwell’s totalitarian allegory, including a rap sequence, flashy sci-fi technology, an egregiously exaggerated fart joke, and a much happier ending. But the critics who didn’t like the movie have been exceptionally brutal and colorful, calling Animal Farm “muddled” and “sloppy,”“an abomination” and “a tonal nightmare,” or “so bad, it’s enough to turn George Orwell fascist.”