Essay: Animal Farm Summative Assessment (film vs. book)

Even though the film Animal Farm (1991) was based off of the book, the film and the book are different for several reasons. The film and the book are similar in many ways, however they’re also different. In the book, Old Major died peacefully in his sleep of old age, but in the film, Old Major was shot. Also, in the book, Mollie was caught talking to humans because she wanted materialistic things such as sugar and ribbons. Yet, in the film this was never mentioned. One more difference is that it seemed in the film, Jessie was pretty important and Clover, the “stout motherly mare” didn’t seem to appear in the film at all even though she was pretty important in the book and was the one who took care of boxer and silently questioned Napoleon’s decisions.
In the beginning of the film, Old Major got all of the animals together to have a meeting. Old major talked about his ideas and how he wanted to revolt against the humans. Old Major shared the song, Beasts of England. The animals loved the song and all sang along. Mr.Jones had woken up from all the noise the animals were making and decided to check out what all the commotion was about. He barged into the farm and slipped in mud, accidentally shooting Old Major with his gun. This is one of the biggest differences between the TNT Animal Farm Film and the book. Although, Old Major got shot in the film, in the book, he simply died in his sleep due to Old Age. In the very beginning of chapter 2, the book narrates, “Three nights [after…] [the meeting] Old Major died peacefully in his sleep” (Orwell). This is an important difference because it creates much more drama in the film. Since Old Major was shot instead of peacefully passing away they put more emphasis on his death when it wasn’t one of the main events in the book.
A second difference between the film and the book is that Mollie’s betrayal was never mentioned. During a meeting the animals were having in the film, Snowball was speaking and you could hear Mollie ask a question about items such as ribbons and sugar. This was the only time in the film Mollie made a significant appearance. It shows that Mollie is more interested in materialistic belongings such as ribbons and sugars but never mentions anything about her betrayal. In the book, Mollie had ribbons and a lump of sugar in her stall and was caught by Clover when she was interacting with humans, which is frowned upon at Animal Farm. Clover confronted her about her contact with the humans and Mollie denied that she was ever speaking to them. Later in the book, Mollie betrays Animal Farms and goes to a different farm where she works very hard, but gets items such as ribbons and sugar. “Three days [after being confronted…] Mollie disappeared. For some weeks, nothing was known of her whereabouts, then the pigeons reported that they had seen her on the other side of Willingdon. […] A [man…] was stroking her nose and feeding her sugar. [..] and she wore a scarlet ribbon round her forelock” (Orwell). This doesn’t change much about the story, but the film includes how Mollie was interested in those kinds of items but never mentioned her again.
The last difference is about the dog, Jessie’s, significance in the film. In the book, Clover was the animal who took care of Boxer and questioned Napoleon’s decisions. Yet in the film, Jessie was a main character and took care of Boxer and silently questioned Napoleon’s decisions. This is a huge difference because Jessie was a main character in the film. It’s important because it’s hard to understand why they would make that difference. Normally, films based off of books have differences because they want to make things more interesting, or don’t have enough time to include everything. But, making Jessie more significant in the film rather than Clover wouldn’t have changed much.
All in all, The film has many more differences compared to the book, but these are some of the most important ones. Old Major was shot, which added more drama, Mollie’s betrayal was never mentioned, and Jessie had a more prominent role in the film whilst Clover had a more prominent role in the book.