History Literature / AnimalFarm

* OhCrap:
** In the 1954 film, when the animals rebel, the pigs seem to know very well what's coming to them, especially Napoleon.
** Mr. Jones in the same film, when he sees the red eyes of the animals and realizes they're much more organized than he thought before.

* RedEyesTakeWarning: In the animated film, the animals' eyes turn red and bloodshot with fury just before they chase Mr. Jones out of the farm for the first time.

** The 1999 film shows that a large group of animals fled the farm before it collapsed.

** In the film, the humans hear the animals' voices over the radio; at first grunts and squeaks, then words, ending with an animals' ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'' complete with [[VisualPun actual "goose-steppers"]].

* SmugSnake: Squealer, especially in the 1999 movie. He ''really'' loves to rub the pigs' superiority in the other animals' faces, even while he's actively deceiving them.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Napoleon in Chapter 8 of the novel (it was hard to come across an animal without hearing how Napoleon's way of running things has improved his/her life). Not so much in the film adaptations, though, which shows the animals seeing him as the monster he is.

** Also, what happens to Snowball in the novel and the live-action film adaptation. In the animated film, he's killed by the dogs, but in the other versions, it's open to interpretation because he never actually gets caught and manages to escape from the farm. It's usually assumed he met a similar fate to his real-life counterpart, Trotsky (i.e. assassination).
** The live-action adaptation also makes clear that Napoleon's rule fell apart after a short time (mirroring the Soviet Union's fate by the time this adaptation was made). How this occurred and what became of the pigs is not shown, it merely implied the whole empire self-destructed from the pigs' incompetence and self-indulgence.

* AdaptationExpansion: [[AdaptationalAlternateEnding The new endings of both film versions]], which were done to reflect what had happened in Russia after the book had been published. The book [[DownerEnding ended as badly as the real-life events it's based on]], with the pigs getting away with everything in a FullCircleRevolution. The 1954 animated movie changes it to the animals leading a revolt against the pigs. The 1999 live-action movie's ending was based on the real-life collapse of the Soviet Union by showing the pigs' empire eventually falling apart on its own.
* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The book [[DownerEnding ended as badly as the real-life events it's based on]], while the 1954 animated movie changes it to a more uplifting ending in which the animals revolt against their new overlords. The 1999 live-action movie expanded the ending based on the real-life collapse of the Soviet Union by showing Napoleon's empire eventually falling apart.
* AdaptationalHeroism: The 1999 film shows Farmer Frederick as being primarily concerned about the poor welfare of the other animals under the leadership of the pigs, in contrast to Farmer Pilkington, who sees the animal farm situation as an opportunity to make a tidy profit swindling the financially naive pigs.

* AdaptationalKarma: The pigs get what's coming to them in both film adaptations, either overthrown by the animals they'd oppressed for so long (1954) or seeing all their efforts come to nothing as the farm collapses around their ears (1999).
* AdaptationalVillainy: The 1999 film presents Farmer Pilkington as the GreaterScopeVillain of the whole situation, being the unreasonable debt holder over Farmer Jones. The film also presents Napoleon as a NormalFishInATinyPond completely ignorant of how to run a farm or manage finances, with Pilkington "partnering" up with him to essentially swindle him.
* AdaptedOut:
** Mrs. Jones in the 1954 film.
** Mr. Whymper, the solicitor who acted as the prime liaison between humans and the pigs of Animal Farm, is absent from the 1999 film; Mr. Pilkington takes up his role when he establishes his business relationship with Napoleon.

* AnimatedAdaptation: The 1954 film.

* BittersweetEnding: Both film versions qualify. The 1954 version has the animals get fed up with the pigs, rise up, and overthrow all of them, taking back control of the farm. The 1999 live-action film has Napoleon's empire eventually collapse in on itself, reflecting the real-life downfall of the Soviet Union. However, in both versions, Boxer is still dead, the farm is completely ruined, and the animals all wasted years of their lives and endured countless amounts of suffering, all of which ultimately amounted to nothing, even if there is some hope for a better tomorrow.
* BlackComedyBurst: The purge, of all scenes, gets this treatment in the 1954 version when the pigs are shown to have amended the relevant commandment [[RefugeInAudacity using the blood of the executed animals]].

* TheCaligula: Napoleon, especially in the 1999 film where we actually see his empire ultimately just collapse from his despotic incompetence.

* ChekhovsArmy: The dogs in the live-action film. They first get mentioned as Napoleon taking Jessie's pups to rear and educate. Then they appear just when Napoleon needs their muscle as huge, powerful, vicious dogs.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover for the 1999 film makes it look like a cute, {{Disneyesque}} movie for kids. ''No.'' The book itself is also labelled "a fairy story", but it's really a mature and blatant political satire on UsefulNotes/RedOctober and Bolshevism.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The 1954 film's version of Napoleon's takeover. Instead of chasing Snowball away, Napoleon has the audacity to ''kill'' Snowball with the dog's pups. If the dogs chasing Snowball into a corner wasn't clear what they did, then the growling and squealing should make it more evident.

* DeathByAdaptation: Several examples in the 1954 AnimatedAdaptation:
** In the book, Jones simply left the area and lost interest in his lost farm, dying in a home for alcoholics. In the movie, it is implied that he died in the explosion that destroyed the windmill.
** Napoleon and the other pigs have a BolivianArmyEnding against a second animal revolution.
** A more subtle example is a dog near the beginning, who dies during the first battle instead of the book's original sole casualty being a sheep -- this sets up where Napoleon gained the pups he trained into his personal guard.
** Whereas Snowball escaped to an ambiguous fate in the novel, in the animated film, he gets an off-screen death at the jaws of Napoleon's attack dogs.
** In the 1999 live-action adaptation, the pigs meet a more ambiguous end, the farm shown to have just fallen apart from Napoleon's despotic rule (much like the Soviet Union had by this time). However, a dead pig is shown in the rubble and heavily implied to be Napoleon.
** In the original book, the cat's fate was only implied to be that she was killed by the dogs, in the 1954 film we actually get to see the death in all its glory.
* DeathGlare: In the animated film, when Squealer gives a eulogy for Boxer after the latter was sent to the knacker, he claims he was with him in his final moments. He's met with this from the rest of the farm animals, indicating that ''none of them'' are buying it.
* DemotedToExtra: Mr. Frederick has a much smaller role in the 1999 film, with his attack on the windmill being given to Jones. He does get a small AdaptationalHeroism, in which he is disgusted by the treatment of the animals under the pigs. Also in the 1999 movie, Clover's role as the point of view character is given to Jessie; Clover herself appears, but has no speaking lines and virtually zero focus. Both of these also ring true for the 1954 animated film.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Both film adaptations changed the ending to be more uplifting. The live-action version was made after the Soviet Union collapsed, making it one of the more justified uses.

* TheDogBitesBack: In both the film adaptations.
** In the climax of the 1954 film, the animals engage in a FullCircleRevolution of their own by overthrowing the pigs and taking back control of the farm.
** In the 1999 film, the animals just escape and leave the pigs to their fate, causing the farm to collapse without anyone to work on it.
** Also in the 1999 film, Jessie attacks farmer Jones and bites onto the wooden stick Jones was using trying to whip the other animals.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: In the 1999 film, Mr. Frederick criticizes Pilkington for opening up trade with Napoleon while the other animals on the farm are starving.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Four of the pigs, who had no problem with hoarding the milk and apples, protest Snowball's expulsion and Napoleon's grab for power, and are executed for it.
** In the 1954 film, the crow that had watched the dogs kill Snowball is horrified enough to turn his head away as the dogs kill the other animals, showing how unnatural the killings were even to a bystander.

** In the live-action film, there were actual trials.

** What was supposed to be a tragic moment in the live-action film, as Old Major dies getting accidentally shot in the head by Farmer Jones right before his cause is fulfilled, becomes pure {{narm}} when he falls off the roof of the barn, does a triple backflip, and crashes dead in a haystack.[[invoked]]
** So the animals are now happy and cheerful, then they enter the farmhouse and find Major's butchered carcass in the kitchen (along with [[LosingYourHead his severed head]] in a meat rack).
** The 1954 movie's first half was cheerful and somewhat comical, which makes Napoleon's regime all the more jarring.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Is it Moll''ie'' or Moll''y''? The book itself tends to use the first, while some other references (including us) use the second.

* RomanAClef: Of a sort. Granted, the people are mostly replaced by animals.

* BrokenAesop: The 1999 film tries to account for Soviet collapse by changing the ending so that Napoleon's empire becomes unsustainable and collapses on itself. Fair enough, but then the film concludes with a smiling human family driving onto the farm as the sun comes back out and Jessie happily explains, "Now we have new owners!" Which pretty much negates the entire meaning of the allegory.
** Although she also says they won't let them make the same mistake, meaning if they start being tyrannical, they'll kick their butts.

* UnfortunateNames: Several of the pigs have one, with Squealer being the most notable example. There's also Minimus the poet, whose name means "a creature or being that is the smallest or least significant" and Pinkeye, the young pig tasked with tasting Napoleon's food in case it's poisoned, whose name is a synonym for conjunctivitis.

[[caption-width-right:350:A fairy story.[[note]]It's actually a MatureAnimalStory[[/note]]]]

* FullCircleRevolution: The CentralTheme of the novel. Most of the pigs end up just as oppressive and greedy as the humans they drove out. The pigs use propaganda, lies, and deceit to get their way. The rest of the animals end up even worse off than before, the name of the farm is changed back to what it was before the revolution, and they can no longer tell apart the pigs and the humans.

* GoodIsDumb: {{Deconstructed|trope}}. At least when compared to the pigs, the rest of the animals are rather simple-minded and easy for the pigs to manipulate as they rarely question the pigs' authority. Even at times when they even consider the farm's state to have become ''worse'' than when Jones was in charge, they don't consider to have a change of authority and instead only make up excuses for the pigs' ruthlessness which allows them to continue their dictatorship with nobody to stop them.

* IronicName: [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Guess who Napoleon is named after.]]