ANIMAL FARM was filmed in and around a specially built studio in the Luggala Valley, on the Guinness Estate in County Wicklow, Ireland, a one-hour drive south of Dublin. Filming began August 25, 1998, and wrapped November 6. Because of the extensive CGI work and other post-production requirements, the film in its final form was not delivered to TNT and Hallmark Entertainment until June 1999.

At Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London, 14 animals were built to represent the animals of ANIMAL FARM: four pigs (Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer), two horses (Boxer and Mollie), Jessie the sheepdog, Benjamin the donkey, Muriel the goat, Moses the raven, a sheep, a rat, a chicken and a duck. It took a crew of 65 artists and technicians six months to create the animals, which were then carefully packed and transported by truck and ship to Dublin and on to the Luggala facility. A staff of 15 technicians and four puppeteers came to Luggala from London for the 11-week shoot.

The ANIMAL FARM producers commandeered three farms in County Wicklow, Ireland, for six months prior to the start of filming of ANIMAL FARM. More than 100 live animals were boarded at those farms, and underwent a daily training regimen (with weekends off). Six highly experienced trainers, supervised by the team of Bronco McLoughlin, Alfie Evans and Karen Bennett, worked under the watchful eye of representatives of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

In the words of producer Greg Smith, "Never have so many animals – especially the pigs! – been so pampered." Because the animatronic versions of the animals, built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop technicians, were based on specific living animals, the "animal cast," as Smith called his two- and four-legged charges, were treated very well, indeed. Veterinarians tended them on a round-the-clock basis.

During World War II, Russia was an ally of the U.S. and Britain. The Russians suffered terrible losses at the hands of the Germans; public sympathy in both the U.S. and Britain was definitely with Stalin and his countrymen. Prominent writers like H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw wrote glowingly of Russia. As a result of the decidedly pro-Russia atmosphere, George Orwell had a tough time finding a publisher for ANIMAL FARM. It was rejected four times before a publisher was found for the politically incorrect work. The book was a clear indictment of Russian political history and the Russian leadership, especially Stalin. Sales at first were anemic; eventually, however, it became a bestseller, and is generally recognized as one of the century's most influential pieces of literature.

Old Major, the grandfatherly philosopher of change in ANIMAL FARM, is generally regarded to have been modeled on Karl Marx. Napoleon, the farm's central character and chief rogue, is without question Josef Stalin. Squealer – master manipulator who "could turn black into white," says Orwell – is thought by many to represent Pravda, the Russian newspaper, whose name translates, ironically, into "truth." Squealer is thought by some to represent Goebbels, Germany's masterful minister of propaganda. Snowball represents Trotsky, Stalin's arch-rival. Trotsky, like Snowball, was exiled – to Mexico. Stalin had him assassinated by Russia's secret police; he was found with a pick-axe buried in his head. Boxer represents a dictator's dream: The totally gullible disciple who will do anything, who believes everything. The pigs symbolize Stalin's Communist Party cronies (Orwell: "Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer – except, of course, the pigs and the dogs."). The dogs represent Stalin's secret police (the KGB) or, more accurately, Stalin's bodyguards – super-loyal, super-ruthless.

To achieve the realism in both look and movement that was required of the animatronic animals in ANIMAL FARM, real animals were extensively measured, photographed and filmed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop technicians. Museum sculptors specializing in anatomy were hired to oversee the sculpting process to make sure that each animal was exactly right before fiberglass molding began. The molds were then used to make either a foam latex or silicone skin, depending on how the creatures were to be positioned and shot in the film. All the pigs are made from silicone, to most closely match the texture and movement of a real pig's skin.

The skins were painted and painstakingly imbedded with hair, or furred or feathered, depending on the animal. They were then fitted over the body fabrication, or "hull," that houses the mechanics, which in turn operate the body and facial movements.

To accommodate the combined use of hydraulics, servos and motion bases, both the software and hardware of the Academy Award^®-honored Henson Performance Control System had to be completely rebuilt for the ANIMAL FARM challenge. Thanks to a brand-new record/playback and pre-recorded lip-sync system, the puppeteer has complete integrated control over the various methods of running the expressions and body movements of the animals and, in the words of Henson Creative Project Supervisor Verner Gresty, "to build up the layers of his performance."

Using a laptop computer, a puppeteer can program whole lines of dialogue and speeches before a take, so the animal's lips will be in perfect sync. Still, not everything is controlled by the laptop. Puppeteers, after all, are artistes. They always leave at least some elements to spontaneity, so they can be altered from take to take!