re: Animal Farm adaptation made for the "modern audience" slaughtered at box office

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They’re used to rewriting source material, including the Bible (The Chosen)

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"Modern" - LGBTQ, women, and racially resentful non-whites

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Based on the plot synopsis I read (I have no intention of watching this), that's not what happened?

It appears "modern audiences" in this particular case is wealth inequality - but that's giving it a pretty generous read.

I swear though, looking through the cast list, I can't help but wonder why none of them scratched their heads at accepting it:

Seth Rogen
Gaten Matarazzo
Kieran Culkin
Glenn Close
Steve Buscemi
Laverne Cox
Woody Harrelson
Jim Parsons
Andy Serkis
Kathleen Turner
Iman Vellani


I mean, I may not like some of those folks, but that's a pretty big list of people I can identify by name (which is saying something for me).

Here's some of the critiques:

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Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "Serkis' 21st-century update dilutes Orwell's political allegory in favor of what passes for something more 'audience friendly': His approach adopts the celebrity voices, cutesy character designs and antic, mile-a-minute energy of big-studio American toons. The result isn't nearly as polished as Illumination or DreamWorks movies, but 'good enough for government work,' as the saying goes."

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Mark Kennedy rated the film zero out of four stars in an Associated Press review, writing that "screenwriter Nicholas Stoller and director Andy Serkis' awfully misguided Disneyfication of one of the greatest allegorical satires in the English language is a cinematic car crash."

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Some of the critiques were aimed at the changes in theme; one stating it as "Trump-era" but another just pointing out the connection to the era of corporations. It does seem, though, that most hated the idea of changing the story at all (considering it's one of the greater English novels of all time) AND the use of cute-style characters.

I think making this and something like Watership Down with cutesy characters obliterates the story.