Animal Farm Vs Chicken Run Essay

Maggie Lindars

How one mentally approaches a situation in life can determine the outcome more than several other factors combined. For example if you're going out for a sports team and you have confidence, and a determined attitude, you may be able to beat out someone who has been playing the sport longer than you. In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell and the movie Chicken Run by Mark Burton the aim of the animals was to achieve a self governed life, free of humans. Although both have failures and successes, ultimately Chicken Run ends up more successful than Animal Farm. The main reason for these different outcomes is the mindsets and values of the characters.

In Animal Farm, all the characters had different mindsets, and values

Because of these differences the animals are not able to form a cohesive bond, and are not able to work together for the good of the farm. From the very beginning of their new freedom a power hierarchy begins to appear on the farm. The pigs are slacking off in jobs, and being bossy towards other animals. The animals also have made a list of commandments to follow in order for the farm to be successful which the pigs slowly break throughout the book. Benjamin, the apathetic donkey quickly takes note of what's going on but doesn’t care to mention it to any of the other animals. His pessimistic mindset is what holds him back. Maybe he thinks no one will believe him, or maybe he just truly doesn't care, either way he never spoke up and the pigs were never stopped. Boxers' determined, loyal mindset works positively for the physical being of the farm. No one works harder at building the windmill than Boxer, doing the work of 3 horses combined. His mindset has the adverse effect of making him care for the farm so much that he is unable to open his eyes to what is truly going on on the farm. He thinks as long as he keeps telling himself “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder” everything will be ok. “Boxer would never listen to her. His two slogans, "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right," seemed to him a sufficient answer to all problems.”(31) Napoleon's

The chickens, especially one chicken, Ginger, have been plotting an escape for a while. They have had various ideas on how to escape, none seem to work. Ginger is a determined, assertive, and optimistic character. The difference between Chicken Run and Animal Farm is that all of the chickens in one way or another have the same determined mindset as Ginger. One of the roosters, Fowler, is skeptical about everything “not like his days in the RAF”. Unlike Benjamin in Animal Farm though, by the end of the movie he is able to change his mindset about the escape, and even accepts the duty of flying the plane that ends up getting the chickens out. Another character, Mac, is a very smart, engineer chicken. She shares the same mindset and Ginger about escaping the farm and even though she doesn't have the same leading personality, is still able to use her knowledge to help the chickens to escape. One chicken, Rocky, comes in and acts like he can fly, willing to teach the other chickens to fly as well as long as they let him hide from the circus he escaped from. At first Rocky is two faced, self centered, and obnoxious. Even though he isn't necessarily a protagonist at first, he still shares the same mindset as Ginger and the other chickens. He was so determined that he was able to escape the circus he