Animal Farm is a 1999 political comedy-drama television film directed by John Stephenson and written by Alan Janes. Based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell and serving as an allegory of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, the film features an ensemble cast including Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Julia Ormond, Paul Scofield, Charles Dale, Pete Postlethwaite, Alan Stanford and Peter Ustinov. Jim Henson's Creature Shop provided the film's animatronic animals. In the film, a group of anthropomorphic animals revolt successfully against their human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny among themselves when an evil pig takes control of the farm.