Review: Animal Farm: The Graphic Novel

Animal Farm: The Graphic Novel by Odyr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

Whenever anyone starts talking about some of the most relevant & enduring works of the 20th century, one would be remiss if not mentioning the works of George Orwell such as 1984 & Animal farm. And for good reason.

If learning history teaches us not to repeat our past mistakes, then Orwell is the man who has distilled tomes upon tomes worth of philosophical, ideological & political thoughts into a manner which is easily digestible to the laymen, without needing to delve into the manifestos which govern those political ideologies.

One need not read a hundred or so political treatises by historians or analysts regarding the rise & fall of communism in its flagship enterprise of the Soviet Union. (Although it’ll do you good, if you were to expend the time & effort to do so). Instead, you only need to read Orwell’s words, the words of a man who was once enamored by the socialist ideology, and then first hand saw the evils which it eventually leads to. So the man has some good gems to offer.

Through works such as Animal Farm, Orwell makes it clear to us, the catalysts which lead to the regimes such as the communists to rise, how those movements which began with good, lofty intentions get corrupted in time, by those who are hungry for power.

How, the masses that once stood behind these political movements are tricked, hoodwinked & bamboozled, through half truths and propaganda, forcing them to stay in a constant state of oppression.

How, at the end of the day, even when empires crumble, and regimes change, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and how those who were meant to be the watchdogs of the populace turn into ravenous beasts thirsting for their very lives.

The pigs kept the farm animals working, by giving them lofty dreams of a utopian future, where no one would have to work, and could live in ease, with no wants or needs. So, it is natural they said, that we have to work extra hard in the present, in order to set the foundations of said plentiful future. The deceitful promise of the future, which never came to pass.



It still amazes me to this day how Orwell is able to lay out a clear line of events from the conception of the Soviet Union, rise of the communists, fall of well intentioned leaders early on in the movement, power hungry despots such as Stalin coming to power. Eventually leading nations such as the Soviet Union, turning from a beacon of progress & new world order, into a totalitarian hell hole police state, where no one is safe.

This makes it seem like there is only one universal truth in any political system; there are those who exploit others for their own gains, and there are those who let themselves be exploited. Well, denigrating the latter as hapless sheep might be a generalization. After all, in the dystopian police state which the Soviet Union eventually became, those who dared to stand up and criticize the rulers were the ones to first get squashed or sent to Siberia.



Through use of Allegories and deceptive prose, Orwell shows us how, bit by bit, over time, the collective memories of the oppressed are shaped by those in power. To rewrite history, to glorify their own order, to create villains out of phantoms and enemies without, so that the populace is always looking elsewhere for reasons as to why their lives are so f**king miserable.



And if what has been happening in ccp china in the past few years is any indication, it’s the same sort of behavior totalitarian police states assume even to this day. But, you know, with Internet censorship, mass surveillance & brainwashing. If it's any indication, Emperor Xi jin ping, much like Napoleon in the story, is preparing for the third of what is to be a lifelong term being the ruler of china, and has already put into practice of "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." when it comes to ccp & the people.

Apologies for the rant. Those who’ve read my previous reviews know my feeling when it comes to ‘that’ particular communist regime. And come on, we’re talking about Orwell & the evils of Communist dictatorship, how can I NOT talk about the shit that is happening there!

Back to the story. In Animal Farm, Orwell unintentionally lists out a step by step guide of ‘How to establish your own totalitarian regime’. From how the popular sentiments of sufferings of the farm animals by a charismatic speaker the Old Major (a stand-in for Lenin). The continuing oppression & dearth of civil liberties lead to the animal uprising, and the establishment of the Animal Farm (Soviet Union).



How initially, a few intellectual elite, the pigs (Bolsheviks) took it upon themselves to be in charge for the greater good. How in the nascence of this ideology, leaders such as Snowball (stand in for Leon Trotsky) made an earnest if not flawed effort to make the communist ideology work. Only to then be ousted & exiled by the power hungry despots such as Napoleon (Stalin)


The narrative shifts ever so slightly, as the innocent, hard working farm animals, whose only desires in life are freedom, and a better future, become unwitting pawns in the greater power plays of their leaders. How, brick by brick, the original ideology which united them and gave them purpose was mutated into a pervaded abomination which was meant to benefit a few in favor of the many.

Nowhere is this made more apparent in the corruption of the original tenets of Animalism ‘two legs bad, four legs good’. In assuming power, ruling over their fellow animals & reaping the benefits of their toils, and finally collaborating with the same evil ‘two legs’, the pigs rewrote the tenets to suit their own interest ‘Four legs good, two legs better’.



The final scene of the book, where the pigs, who are now behaving like men, talking like men, eating like men, drinking like men, and the animals who cannot really tell the difference between their old oppressors and their new oppressors, is indeed chilling, in being reminded how close they are to real events… over seven decades after Orwell’s death.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm

As far as I can say, this visual adaptation of Animal farm is able to do justice to the source material. The narrative is something which lends well to the visual media. The panels are drawn like they are paintings on a canvas, and you can literally feel the ridges and grooves which would seem like almost brush strokes. This dark & contrasting color palette, is able to give an fantastical, otherworldly anthropomorphized feeling to the emotions being felt by the characters, most of whom are animals.



Unlike the god awful live action remake of Lion King (Seriously disney, get off your ass, stop doing remakes and do some original content, you greedy pigs), here despite the animals not being turned into cartoons, we can infer as to what is going on in their minds. The joy of initial freedom, the suffering of overwork & starvation, the fear of being once again oppressed by humans and then pigs, and when finally dread turns to despair as they shed their shackles shifted from one master to another. Kudos to the team for this rendition.


This graphic novel is, in my opinion, a great addition to these timeless Orwellian tales, and something which you can pick up to gain better appreciation of his work.


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