Tag: Animal Farm

Animal Power

On By coilerxiiIn EssayLeave a comment

Like WW3 1987, I might be doing re-reviews, only in this case of books that have nothing to do with a Fuldapocalypse. At least one worth revisiting is Naomi Alderman’s The Power, which got a TV adaptation after I got it and was one of the first diversified reviews on this blog.

The plot summary: Women gain comic book electricity powers. Because men have been JUST SO CRUEL a critical mass become “Magnetos” and not “Xaviers”, so society devolves into a power trip (pun intended) with the timeskip showing a cruel bizarro-Gor.

The gold standard for this kind of “see how power [pun also intended] corrupts and how oppressed become oppressors” is of course, Orwell’s classic Animal Farm. But whereas that was an allegory of revolution (and not just the Russian one, the name ‘Napoleon’ is very deliberate), this is kind of like if a radical vegan wrote Animal Farm and the message was how animal husbandry is inherently vile. Instead of the pigs becoming humanized, they’d turn into, I don’t know, Beastmen of Slaanesh depraved sadists, because HUMANS ARE THE REAL MONSTERS.

The Animal Farm Movie Is (Probably) Even Worse Than It Looks

On By coilerxiiIn EssayLeave a comment

So a trailer for an “adaptation” of George Orwell’s Animal Farm directed by Andy Serkis and starring Seth Rogen as Napoleon the Pig has been released, with predictable reception.

So the main antagonist, judging by the trailer and gossip, goes from being Pig Stalin himself to a human named…. Pilkington. Using that name makes it all look even worse. Because first off, in the book Mr. Pilkington and his Pinchfield Farm represent the West in general (and Churchill’s Britain more specifically). But even beyond that, the name is obscure, meaning that yes, you’d needed to look at the book and not just grab the rights like what seemingly happened with Starship Troopers.

It gets even worse as one realizes the name is extra-unsuitable given that here Animalism apparently works perfectly until Napoleon is tempted by an Evil Capitalist human. Because in the book, Napoleon actually is tempted with his “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact” by agreeing to sell timber to Mr. Frederick of Foxwood, who naturally stiffs him and invades anyway.

Yes, Glenn Close’s villainess being named “Pilkington” instead of “Frederick” means that the filmmakers looked at someone who was literally based on Hitler and said “let’s use the stand-in for the west instead because Evil Capitalist Elon Musk Cybertruck Lol.”