Andy Serkis’ Last Movie Before LOTR Return Gets Abysmal RT Score

Reviews of Andy Serkis‘ latest movie, before his return to the Lord of the Rings franchise in The Hunt for Gollum, have surfaced, and they aren’t positive. As a result of the overwhelmingly negative reception, the animated comedy has garnered a rather poor score on Rotten Tomatoes.

What critics are saying about Animal Farm in reviews

Most of the critics have slammed Andy Serkis’ new movie Animal Farm’s style and storytelling, opining it paled in comparison to the source material, George Orwell’s 1945 novella of the same name.

Variety‘s Peter Debruge shared in his review that while the film wasn’t “nearly as polished as Illumination or DreamWorks movies,” it was “good enough for government work.” He added that it retained some of the DNA from Orwell’s book but was “far too disorderly” to stand in for the latter. He continued, “Woe to the student who tries watching this toon instead of doing the reading.”

Meanwhile, Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph noted in his review that Orwell himself would have hated the movie if he saw it. He added that it oddly succeeded at making viewers “feel trapped and punished” while watching. Robey further stated, “It looks so unremittingly horrid, well before Napoleon’s ascendancy to become a fascist, paranoid despot.”

Liz Declan of ScreenRant said it wasn’t faithful to its source material. In her review, she stressed that it didn’t offer anything “instructive” or “valuable” to audiences, adding, “Some adaptations, it seems, are far less equal than others.”

Elsewhere, Matt Neal of ABC Radio cast doubt on the film’s ability to cater to a family audience. Highlighting the tonal inconsistency, he called it, “A dark tale that feels largely too dark for young kids, yet not actually dark enough to do Orwell’s story justice.”

However, not all reviews were negative, with Deadline‘s Pete Hammond offering praise. He wrote, “This gorgeously animated version is not outwardly trying to be political but nevertheless is uncannily meeting its time and proving to be a little too close for comfort to America’s drift toward authoritarianism.”

Animal Farm gets a poor score on Rotten Tomatoes

As of writing, Animal Farm has garnered a rotten 40% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews. This will no doubt change once more come in.

The film premieres in theaters on May 1, 2026. Andy Serkis directed it from Nicholas Stoller’s screenplay. The former is also part of the voice cast, which includes Seth Rogen, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, and Glenn Close, among others.

Source: Comingsoon.net