Andy Serkis's Animal Farm adaptation criticized as defanged happy ending overhaul
Dude who radically changed important details about Animal Farm and justified it by saying Orwell would have liked it is very insistence that casting black people to play Hobbits would just be weird and not faithful to the Shire.
LittleKuriboh231One thing I’d wanna say to the crowds of folks who insist “they should cast whoever is appropriate for the role” is that Andy Serkis’ last directorial feature had Seth Rogen playing Napoleon the pig.
Faulerro93He’s not just a clown at this point, he’s the entire Serkis.
Kris Dobbins53Meanwhile Magic the Gathering's LotR set
brushimp.bsky.social27I am starting to thin maybe Andy isn't the best creative guy when it comes to this sorta thing. Like removing the fact that Animal farm is not exactly about Communism but about the dangers of violent revolution being able to lead to military dictatorship (The pig being called Napoleon is not subtle)
Bob17Holy shit he just called the hobbits of The Shire White Nationalists. Holy shit
Transmasc Tiefling 12Well, at least if Vox Machina decides to recast him for being fuckin racist, his entire performance as Vecna would have been better performed by Andrew Wincott anyway.
Increasingly, Serkis makes me feel like he’s making this movie for the toxic bros. Pro-AI, all-white cast, ignoring Tolkien’s real words for the vibes-based mythologizing of him; all shit toxic bros love. He also made the Animal Farm movie that completely missed the books anti-authoritarian point.
![Variety tweet with a picture of Gollum from LOTR that reads - Andy Serkis gets asked why his "Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum" cast is all white actors and says: "I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film."
“Tolkien himself was influenced a lot by Norse mythology, there’s a lot of that feeling. The Shire feels very, very much like a very, a very white, you know… They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in. Yes, there have been criticisms [about a lack of diversity]. This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film. So, it’s where relevant basically." (via BBC)
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Hyde T. Voltyge46I've just learned from people commenting on here that he's done two Angel Studios films also. Ulysses Klaue, racist South African billionaire was... a fitting role it seems.
Benjamin Ahr Harrison43So annoying how much fascists love and don’t understand these stories.
Sara The Fat Culture Critic 🇨🇦38It’s telling he can only see diverse casting as box ticking and can’t imagine being thoughtful about it including nonwhite people in the decision making.
🐈⬛33I was rereading Fellowship of the Ring last night, Hobbits are described as "brown" in the book. Not white. They're brown. Casting white actors, while I've seen the skill of said actors, is unfaithful to the book. He doesn't have a leg to stand on there.
Dom Noble31I was SO sure the trailer for the Animal Farm film was a Saturday Night Live parody. It missed the point by so much I thought it HAD to be on purpose.
The Red Jaws30I get the impression that Serkis is just a thoughtless "hollywood liberal" who is only "liberal" because he looks down his nose at "trailer park types"
Will Burrows 🖖🥖🥀45Holy shit re: how much this Serkis quote gives the game away about what "white" means
Mao Mao!28Really fascinating they're dedicated to anti-hyping this movie. Just committed to make the most rancid vibes possible.
Helm von Savigny19Voy a aprovechar este post para contaros cosillas sobre Tolkien y su obra que a lo mejor no sabíais y que os permitirán concluir que Serkis no se ha preocupado de informarse sobre la opinión de Tolkien y se limita a utilizarlo como “argumento de autoridad” para justificar sus propios prejuicios.
Eric Ravenscraft13there was a time i really looked up to this dude. and i don't think anyone who worked on LotR has done quite as much to torpedo my opinion of them
𖤐 Neesa 𖤐 team mystery11Cool cool cool, I hate Andy Serkis now.
Emperor Norton6Serkis's point about the Shire is particularly idiotic because The Scouring makes it clear how the isolationism of the hobbits made them easy prey for Saruman, and they are only able to defeat him because of the skills & leadership the fellowship four learned from their time in the outside world
András Forgács W5It's also an odd interview to give the week Christopher Nolan's Odyssey opening
Ward Yke5I feel the urge to point out that the Shire is based on ... Iceland. Iceland, that for many legal matters doesn't distinguish between residents and citizens. If you wanna justify keeping foreigners out of a place, then modeling it after Iceland of all places is a bold choice, to say the least
✨Zelly✨4andy serkis make a good movie challenge: IMPOSSIBLE
You Call Yourself a Film Critic3It's almost admirable for Serkis to go out of his way to make a film nobody wanted less appealing Bold strategy, Cotton, let's see how it plays out
It’s hard to do Animal Farm when you sympathize with fascists
John Henry Rhodenhiser54I actually don't think the substance of his Animal Farm is that problematic (though it's not a good movie!) but the decision to go to Angel to distribute it after Netflix dropped it is increasingly concerning.
Torven6That's the hilarious part. The story is an allegory for Lenin's betrayal of Democratic Socialists and Marxists. Conservatives have been conflating communism and socialism forever. It should have been super easy for them to twist the story into socialism undermining democracy, but they were too dumb.
Ed G Baboon1Pigs have admirable qualities, too...
Serkis just made a *very* weird Animal Farm animated film distributed by Angel Studios, a Utah-based Christian film company so, like, yeah this checks out.
anothercultland15In an appropriately Orwellian twist, his version of Animal Farm completely changed the point of the story.
Maxie Canoe10Angel studios is basically the propaganda team for the real life "Sons of Jacob" from the handmaid's tale that is the Heritage foundation, so serkis working with them is a huge condemnation of character.
Brian “Rip McStudly” Porter5He was in Angel’s Young Washington too
Alice last name3Goddammit.... this is why we can't have nice things....
masteroftrades.bsky.social1I was wonder if he was always like that or is he afraid of the backlash from racist losers like Elon Musk
Andy Serkis really saw all the problems in the world and decided to use his voice in this moment to let everyone know he doesn't like when elves and dwarves aren't white
westvillagecrank.bsky.social9How many examples do I need the reminder that talent does not correlate to soul? Well, another for card catalogue, I guess.
Robert Malick3He gets to be more of a chud every year
Newt Calkins2Worth saying because it's coming up a fair bit: Yes, he was directly answering a question that was asked of him. However, he was not being deposed for a court case. This was a publicity self-own. "No comment" and variations thereof is always an option.
Gaius Faelis Juvenalis1there's a reason I don't fanboy any celebs. and avoid 'heroes'.
Andy Serkis has always been a jerk even back when he started getting big, by trying to shortchange and downplay the hard work of VFX artists and animators to try to glorify himself. Saying that his mocap performances were just "digital make up" instead of celebrating that creative collaboration.
I haven’t heard anything about Young Washington, but apparently Animal Farm was REALLY bad.
Tulpa King (aka Admiral Snackbar)316It’s hard to do Animal Farm when you sympathize with fascists
MossCoveredStones7At one point Kelsey Grammer (in costume) in not so subtle terms tells the audience to see the movie two or more times because their cause is righteous. Aka: please give us more monies for this AI slop.
Cosmo Tuxedo4young washington used gen ai in many shots. the director is very open about using it ): other than that i think its just ok? ive only seen reviews.
The thing that annoys me about the Andy Serkis thing most is that his comments implicitly link Englishness to whiteness in a way that is, and he knows this very well being an English person himself, not even casual racism but fundamentally Reform Party territory
We Old Cordeliers4Especially crazy as he is British Iraqi…
James Calbraith3When inevitably nobody goes to see this dross he'll have the excuses ready.
Isaac (proud small hat wearer) Gantwerk Mayer3I don’t know what he did this time, but I will say that I appreciate the fact he gave animal farm exactly the level of respect it deserves
Has there ever been an actor who burned all his good will this quickly? From the MCU and Andor to a Christofash mangling of Animal Farm and the kind of Tolkien adaptation meant to appeal only to those appropriating Tolkien's names to nightmare tech.
Ziggy, Tabletop Taurus12My sibling in Eru Illuvatar, you are making a movie out of throwaway lines. You can do what ever you want and you're sticking with the "it's European inspired which means only white people" garbage mindset beloved by the ignorant.
😸 Hugo the pink cat 😸2What is it with all these actors showing their asses lately?!
