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Actors Gaten Matarazzo and Iman Vellani share their thoughts on Andy Serkis's animated adaptation of George Orwell's "Animal Farm." They discuss the challenge of translating the book's famously bleak ending for a new audience and how the film adds a hopeful element to the classic tale.
Transcript
00:00i didn't have to read it you didn't read it in school no i read it before this okay great
00:04yeah so that this was like my first introduction to nice i think george orwell's books in general
00:10way i'm a very i matured late you should jump on yeah oh my god 1984 broke yeah there's uh
00:16but no it it's such a jarring picture the ending of the book and it really sticks with you that
00:24final image and i was like so curious how they were gonna you know adapt that into a children's
00:31movie because that seems not very uh uh hopeful but andy again he has such a like positive
00:39world view and really uh inserted that into this film and so you get this like really helpful
00:45element and the movie is almost like an extension of the book if anything so we we get to see
00:51you
00:51know the powers that be we get to see how power corrupts and how it can twist the truth but
00:56we
00:56also get to see how you where you come in as like someone who's living in that system right like
01:02these
01:02are yeah it's pretty brilliant i also think it's what's interesting is that a lot of times the way
01:08tonally something can end can be a reflection on on when they were created and of course orwell
01:14i mean it was published in 1945 which is i think famously not a great year for people uh and
01:21so i
01:22think it was a deep reflection of current events and that's why it was so jarring when it came out
01:26and
01:26i think why it's such a staple and why why it works so well and seeing it through that lens
01:31just reminds
01:32you of how horrifying things can be and things can get and i think that what's interesting about the
01:37time period in which this is being tackled is that it's throughout a time that is is incredibly
01:44scary and a lot of these questions are being brought up i think a lot earlier than they always
01:48work as information is so accessible that i think that introducing these questions uh in a context that
01:55is i think safe for younger audiences i think is basically essential because you can't just throw
02:00orwell into the lap of of somebody who's like seven years old and expected really to to kind of make
02:08much of a difference there yet but by the time people now are entering high school these these events
02:14and these questions have already been kind of circulating for a very very long time so having
02:18the option that's a very funny way of putting it when they're like oh great for sure oh this is
02:26what
02:26they're talking about right and i think that does leave enough i think like you said it ends on a
02:31note
02:31of hope but it also brings up these questions and then i think it kind of is a great like
02:36maybe
02:36launch pad of being able to kind of go in deeper later on and i remember when this was introduced
02:42it was one
02:42of the first i think any time an older novel is put on your desk in school the first thing
02:48you do
02:48is roll your eyes and the minute we cracked open this one it was just we just tore through it
02:53i remember
02:53my entire class it was like the first time all of us were completely invested and excited to talk
02:59about it and discuss and it was the one time like you would read beyond the assigned chapter that
03:04you were given that day no spark notes no spark notes needed not for this uh and i think it's
03:09just
03:09it's a very it's a powerful piece and i think it resonates consistently and it's exciting to see
03:14andy take a swing at this and i think we're both pretty stoked to be a part of it
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