Due to the anthropomorphic nature of its protagonists, George Orwell's classic allegory Animal Farm lends itself well to illustrated or animated adaptations, be they comic strips, graphic novels, or cartoons. In this post-Babe age, it was only a matter of time before Jim Henson's Creature Shop got around to telling the story. Creature Shop alum John Stephenson tackles Orwell with everything technology will allow—puppets, trained animals, and CGI—and the result is one of the story's creepiest adaptations to date. One of the most enduring qualities of Orwell's text is its bare-bones simplicity: The barnyard revolution on Mr. Jones' farm is told entirely from the animals' vantage, becoming an almost diary-like account of the corruption of socialism into totalitarianism. Stephenson's version remains faithful to the story but makes a few key changes that somehow enhance Animal Farm's cautionary message. For starters, Stephenson's version is told as a flashback from the perspective of Jessie the dog (voiced by Julia Ormond, one of many celebrity animal voices, including Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Scofield, Peter Ustinov, Patrick Stewart, and Pete Postlethwaite, who pulls double duty as Mr. Jones). The framing device works well, considering the recent fall of the Soviet Empire, and turns Animal Farm into more of a reminder of totalitarianism's past than a warning about its present. An even more effective change, however, is the development of the human characters. Orwell leaves his humans as vague threats to animal freedom, but the characterization in the script by Alan Janes and Martyn Burke not only does a nice job portraying just what the animals are rebelling against, but also accents the horrific moment of realization when the scheming pigs begin to resemble their former oppressors. Stephenson's Animal Farm doesn't shy away from the grotesqueries of the Stalinist swines' ironfisted rule. In particular, a Big Brother-esque propaganda film (not in the book) depicts acts of cruelty and violence in a way that makes Babe: Pig In The City seem like the kiddie film it was (or, more likely, wasn't) intended to be. If anything, shots of animals hanging from the gallows or being beheaded heighten the horror of Orwell's story, and though the results may not be subtle, they're certainly effective.