Animal Farm (2025)

George Orwell wrote one of the bleakest fables ever, and this version adds a cute piglet sidekick and a billionaire villain with a shopping mall. Andy Serkis turns the story into a loud, cutesy cartoon about corporate greed, where the pigs move into the farmhouse, go shopping and start walking on two legs, and the bite of the original gets filed down to a nibble. Gaten Matarazzo voices Lucky, a new piglet hero torn between Napoleon and Snowball, and he’s fine, but Orwell never needed him. Seth Rogen’s Napoleon sounds exactly like Seth Rogen. Glenn Close has fun as Frieda Pilkington, and the animals thinking they’re headed to a laughterhouse is a genuinely dark gag. The rest is bathroom jokes and a look that feels cheap. Audiences gave it a C-minus CinemaScore. It made $6.8 million worldwide on a reported $35M. A 2.6 because it took a story with teeth and handed it a pacifier. $6,447 says the next time somebody at work calls themselves a co-leader, you start watching them like a hawk.

What works: Glenn Close is clearly having fun as the billionaire villain, and the laughterhouse gag has a real dark edge.

What doesn’t: It softens Orwell’s satire into a loud, cutesy cartoon with bathroom jokes and a cheap-looking finish.

Who it’s for: Families with little kids who have never heard of Orwell and won’t notice what’s missing.