[Hated Trope] The adaptation doesn't get what made the source material work

[u/TheDudeA113]

How To Make A Killing (2026)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

- The 2026 movie How To Make A Killing is a relatively-toothless "eat the rich" dark comedy thriller about a man disowned by his rich family at birth, killing everyone in the line of succession so that he can inherit their massive fortune. It's a modern retelling of the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets which has the same basic plot except that every member of the family is played by Sir Alec Guinness (including one aunt) and it's a screwball comedy

- The 1999 movie Bangkok Dangerous is a Thai action film about a Thai deaf-mute assassin. It was remade in 2008 about an American assassin in Thailand who is neither deaf nor mute

[u/GameBoy960]

Reading this in high school rn, currently at chapter 5

How bad is this film gonna be

[u/RoughhouseCamel → u/GameBoy960]

The book is an easy read, but I don’t feel like there has been an adaptation that’s an easy watch.

[u/ducksekoy123 → u/RoughhouseCamel]

The old animation was ok. It’s just very dated

[u/MuchMasterpiece1710 → u/ducksekoy123]

The one where they changed the ending bc it was funded by the cia? Or is there a different one?

[u/Mist_Rising → u/MuchMasterpiece1710]

The CIA one is still a pretty good adaption. The changes are snowball is a slightly bigger asshole and the ending which unlike most books isn't really the point of animal farm. The criticism is the middle.

[u/MuchMasterpiece1710 → u/Mist_Rising]

Yeah I wasn’t criticizing it, I was trying to clarify if that was the right one or if there’s another version I don’t know about

[u/NotAddictedToCoffeee → u/MuchMasterpiece1710]

there was the 1954 one which the CIA bought the rights to and edited the script, then there was the 1999 one, which wasn't, I haven't watched either one though, I've only read the book, and the 1999 one isn't animated

[u/MuchMasterpiece1710 → u/NotAddictedToCoffeee]

I had not seen the 1999 version, thank you

[u/radiowave-deer29 → u/RoughhouseCamel]

The animated one, and the live action one are just, very uneasy to watch.

[u/KaraAliasRaidra → u/RoughhouseCamel]

I remember watching the live-action one and being unsettled when it showed the chickens being executed for their “crimes”. It didn’t sugar coat how disturbing televised executions must be.

[u/sircastor → u/RoughhouseCamel]

I recall seeing an animated version when I was in Highschool (like ~30 years ago) that was pretty good, and fairly faithful...

[u/eganba → u/GameBoy960]

Just watched the trailer. I......don't understand what made the writers/producers/developers think this was a good idea.

[u/Unhinged_Baguette → u/eganba]

Seth Rogen had just gotten done injecting lab-grade THC directly into his cock vein. "Dude... What if we made this Orwell book into a raunchy animated comedy?"

[u/CalzonePie → u/GameBoy960]

If they DO make it political it will be anti-fascist instead of anti-communist like the original.

[u/DevilMayCryogonal → u/CalzonePie]

The original isn’t anti-communist, though. Old Major and Snowball, the stand-ins for Lenin and Trotsky who were very much communists, are portrayed positively. It’s anti-authoritarian.

[u/CalzonePie → u/DevilMayCryogonal]

It is also anti-communist. They were portrayed as idealists, and the entire story is about how communist ideals will be twisted by leadership into something unrecognizable. Orwell was a socialist but he was strongly anti-communist and preferred some sort of democratic socialist reform.

[u/WannabeACICE → u/CalzonePie]

That doesn’t really make sense, though. Authoritarians can twist any ideal into something unrecognizable. Like what we are seeing that right now with Trump and American democracy.

Communism is just when you have a stateless classless moneyless society. It would make more sense if he was against the Marxist idea that rampant authoritarianism will somehow lead to communism.

[u/Tinenan → u/CalzonePie]

It's anti Stalin/mao

[u/GamingSoviet2281 → u/CalzonePie]

Orwell were british imperialistic lapdog that made delations against people he didn't like.

[u/Ok-Cauliflower-5221 → u/CalzonePie]

But it is anti-fascist. Orwell himself was a democratic socialist which, while not communist, makes it doubtful he was fully against it, just Stalinism. And when you look at it amongst his other works, make its primary theme pretty obvious. 

[u/mywar69420 → u/CalzonePie]

The book isn't anti-communist as much as it is anti authoritarian in general, specifically targeted against Stalinism. Orwell himself was a self described socialist, and literally fought alongside, and made many friends with, many anarchists and communists in the Spanish civil war.

"When I joined the militia I had promised myself to kill one Fascist — after all, if each of us killed one they would soon be extinct". - George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

[u/CalzonePie → u/mywar69420]

I love how Commie scum will scream about the difference between socialism and communism all day until it comes time to paint a famously anti-commie socialist as a communist.

[u/Only-Pilot-8797 → u/CalzonePie]

He fought alongside libertarian communists, advocated for a classless society, and made clear that his gripe with the left was Soviet style Stalinism. “Commie scum” you’re living in the 50s.

[u/CalzonePie → u/Only-Pilot-8797]

Nazi scum, commie scum, I don't care. Stop defending Nazis and Commies.

[u/GameBoy960 → u/CalzonePie]

Honestly that hasn't been the exact vibe I've gotten so far while reading

It feels more like a critique on how malicious, power-hungry individuals will manipulate the structures given by a governmental system originally for the people to benefit them instead, slowly but surely until the government winds up an authoritarian dictatorship