TV MOVIE MENAGERIE; `ANIMAL FARM' RATES THE BEST OF THE FLOCK.Byline: David Kronke TV Critic To paraphrase George Orwell: All TV movies are equal, but some are more equal than others. Four new telefilms premiere tonight, all of them electing to spend their two hours in wildly disparate fashions. ``Animal Farm,'' TNT's adaptation of George Orwell's fable of political unrest in a scabrous scab·rous adj. 1. Having or covered with scales or small projections and rough to the touch. See Synonyms at rough. 2. Difficult to handle; knotty: a scabrous situation. 3. barnyard, relates the classic saga through the eyes of Jessie (voiced by Julia Ormond), an adorable border collie. She witnesses the rise and fall of Napoleon (Patrick Stewart), a cunning, bloated hog who helps guide the animals to rise up against the inhumane humans running the farm. Napoleon soon allies himself with Squealer (Ian Holm), his propaganda minister, and together they betray their former ally, the earnest, well-intentioned Snowball (Kelsey Grammer). They gain full control of the dilapidated remains but lose sight of their original values. Despite its wild ambition, ``Animal Farm'' falls short of Orwell's visionary work, but it's compulsively watchable watch·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being watched; viewable: watchable wildlife. 2. Good enough to watch: "The fastest modem ... thanks to highly inventive visuals. It's a heady experience to watch once-cute animatronics an·i·ma·tron·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The technology employing electronics to animate motorized puppets. [anima(tion) + (elec)tronics. be put to such often-grotesque use - fowl marches with foal to defeat a common enemy; a snotty-snouted swine bellows in righteous anger, ``Victory is ours!'' Jim Henson's Creature Shop Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. It was originally created as a result of the observation that the team that had been put together for The Dark Crystal was extremely hard to recreate for Labyrinth, since has never been part of something so pointed and anarchic. This isn't necessarily for kids, though mine enjoyed it well enough. Orwell wrote his book as an anti-Communism, pro-socialism cautionary fable, and since those concerns are no longer relevant, the film focuses on a message of ``power corrupts - absolute power corrupts absolutely.'' When Napoleon and Squealer leave the rest of the menagerie in the barn for the more comfortable environs of the farmhouse, and develop a taste for alcohol, against the edicts of animalism an·i·mal·ism n. 1. Enjoyment of vigorous health and physical drives. 2. Indifference to all but the physical appetites. 3. The doctrine that humans are merely animals with no spiritual nature. , they simply rewrite the rules to suit themselves. Insert your own favorite recent example of political hypocrisy here. This incarnation is updated with touches that remain perfectly Orwellian - to distract their charges from mounting hardships, Napoleon and Squealer have the television moved into the barn. Soon, they're concocting hilarious propaganda films (a cow enthuses, ``Thanks to the leadership of Napoleon, this grass tastes better than ever!'') that would make Leni Riefenstahl proud, had Riefenstahl a snout. The film's moderately uplifting conclusion - with a political allusion even my 9-year-old caught - is actually audaciously ambiguous, depending on where you land regarding our current leadership. ``There are new owners,'' Jessie says, ``we will not allow them to make the same mistakes.'' And yet, as the camera falls under the onrushing new owner, the movie slyly suggests that there are always plenty of new mistakes to make. ``Secrets & Mysteries of Animal Farm,'' a making-of special airing Wednesday on TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. , is probably overkill, but at least it emphasizes the historical perspective behind Orwell's story over ``Entertainment Tonight''-style vapidity. It offers an intriguing factoid fac·toid n. 1. A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition: : A 1954 British animated version of the story actually altered the ending with financial encouragement from American intelligence, who didn't want kids the world over to see Communism emerge victorious. Apparently, the government found some film projects more equal than others. The facts The show: ``Animal Farm.'' What: Adaptation of George Orwell's darkly comic classic about barnyard politics. Who: Pete Postlethwaite, Alan Stanford, voices of Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Ormond, Paul Scofield, Patrick Stewart, Peter Ustinov. Where: TNT. When: 8, 10 and midnight tonight. Rating: Three and one half stars The facts The show: ``Secrets & Mysteries of Animal Farm.'' What: Making-of special for the TNT film. Who: Narrated by Lance Henriksen. Where: TNT. When: 10 p.m. Wednesday. Rating: Three stars `Forget Me Never' ``Forget Me Never'' is a poky yet emotional drama about the utter devastation wrought by Early Onset Alzheimer's. Mia Farrow stars as Diana McGowin, a sharp-as-a-tack legal secretary whose intellect is dulled by lapses in memory and periods of disorientation. She's loath to admit to herself, then to her family, the severity of her condition. She's not sure she can count on her husband, Jack (Martin Sheen), for the appropriate aid - they haven't grown apart, really, they've just quit communicating with one another, and he's curiously slow to commit his devotion to caring for her. In an effort to form a support group, she meets and befriends a former history professor (Colm Feore, reliably excellent in a role most would overplay o·ver·play v. o·ver·played, o·ver·play·ing, o·ver·plays v.tr. 1. a. To present (a dramatic role, for example) in an exaggerated manner. b. To emphasize or stress unduly. ) whose own condition is more advanced than hers. Anyone who's watched a loved one succumb to Alzheimer's can tell you just how wrenching all this can be. ``Forget Me Never,'' based on McGowin's memoir ``Living in the Labyrinth,'' handles Jack's change of heart schematically - his internal struggle isn't depicted. Largely, the film soft-peddles its gloom and treacle treacle: see molasses. ; it remains affecting nonetheless. The facts The show: ``Forget Me Never.'' What: Dramatic telefilm about a woman's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Who: Mia Farrow, Martin Sheen, Colm Feore. Where: CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. (Channel 2). When: 9 tonight. Rating: Three stars `H-E-Double Hockey Sticks' ``The Wonderful World of Disney'' charts some new, oddly fanciful territory - Hades Hades (hā`dēz), in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the far west beyond the . In ``H-E-Double Hockey Sticks,'' a wisecracking Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Leary wanna-be (Will Friedle) leaves the bowels of the underworld to persuade a hockey star to sell his soul for a Stanley Cup championship. My 6-year-old deemed the very hard-working Friedle ``pretty funny,'' an assessment that's a smidgen gracious. Hell here is called Beelzebub Vocational Institute, a landscape suggesting Tim Burton on a budget, with dimestore Danny Elfman music piped in. The demoness in charge (Rhea rhea, in zoology rhea (rē`ə), common name for a South American bird of the family Rheidae, which is related to the ostrich. Weighing from 44 to 55 lb (20–25 kg) and standing up to 60 in. Pearlman) spouts witless wit·less adj. Lacking intelligence or wit; foolish. wit  less·ly adv.wit lines like, ``Nothing like a little gloom and doom to darken up the whole day'' and, ``We all have to answer to a lower authority.'' You can see why the Baptists distrust Disney. In crushingly predictable fashion, our demon becomes humanized and our hockey star learns the value of teamwork. In Disney's world, teamwork means synergistically syn·er·gis·tic adj. 1. Of or relating to synergy: a synergistic effect. 2. Producing or capable of producing synergy: synergistic drugs. 3. inserting shameless plugs for its Mighty Ducks hockey team and its cable network ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network into children's fare. You can see why non-Baptists distrust Disney. The facts The show: ``H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.'' What: ``The Wonderful World of Disney's'' hell-is-other-hockey-players comedy. Who: Will Friedle, Matthew Lawrence, Rhea Pearlman. Where: ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. (Channel 7). When: 7 tonight. Rating: Two stars `Road Rage' ``Road Rage'' is a ludicrous ``Cape Fear'' rip-off masquerading as an examination of a social ill. It comes complete with an unhinged, out-for-revenge stalker (Jere Burns) who insinuates himself with his target family's teen-ager and a family friend who meets a grisly fate, ineffectual cops who arr incapable of arresting someone for blatant wrong-doing and a standard-issue, overheated o·ver·heat v. o·ver·heat·ed, o·ver·heat·ing, o·ver·heats v.tr. 1. To heat too much. 2. To cause to become excited, agitated, or overstimulated. v.intr. finale. Yasmine Bleeth plays a real-estate agent who learns the hard way that you should never cut someone off in traffic. Since it has become politically incorrect to depict the usual suspects of TV-crimes in action, this movie thoughtfully opts to demonize yet another defenseless demographic: victims of tragedy. This double-plus-ungood piece of telehackery also calls to mind Orwell: All humans are enemies. The facts The show: ``Road Rage.'' What: Woman-in-peril yarn with aspirations of relevance. Who: Yasmine Bleeth, Jere Burns, John Wesley Shipp For other persons named John Wesley, see John Wesley (disambiguation). John Wesley Shipp (born January 22, 1955 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American actor best known as Mitch Leery, the title character's father on the television drama Dawson's Creek . Where: NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. (Channel 4). When: 9 tonight. Rating: One and one half stars CAPTION(S): 3 Photos PHOTO (1) TNT's ``Animal Farm,'' based on George Orwell's fable of political unrest, isn't necessarily for children. (2) Colm Feore and Mia Farrow star in ``Forget Me Never,'' a true story about a women afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. (3) A hockey star (Matthew Lawrence) is pursued by a devilish duo (Rhea Pearlman and Will Friedle) in Disney's ``H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.'' |
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