Liberty Acres - A Sequel

Haven’t we read this somewhere before?  

If elements of this story sound familiar, that’s because they’re intended to, thus demonstrating how history repeats itself, or at least rhymes. So yes, there will be elements of the story that appear a bit familiar, or reference other familiar stories. Editorial cartoons often use familiar references as an allegorical device, so I suppose this could be described as an editorial cartoon but presented in novella format. 

Like many sequels, the structure is very similar to the original, but with new players. The reader will notice that a lot of the same storyline elements in the original happens in this story, too -- such as the training of the young dogs, scapegoating and driving out the opponent, bending the rules of the charter and using the charter as a means to a selfish end. 

Plus, footnotes and Easter eggs!

Update: No, this is not associated with the new Andy Serkis movie.

I haven’t seen the Serkis movie as of this writing, although from reviews it sounded most critics hate it for cutening up the characters and not being faithful to the original novel.  Apparently it took awhile for the movie to pick up a distributor after it was shown at Annecy Film Festival in 2025.

The movie is apparently a modern-day “reimagining”, as is the trend in Hollywood right now (i.e. “Snow White”) From the reviews, I noticed several plot similarities between this movie and “Liberty Acres”, which are entirely — and uncannily — coincidental.  …Coincidental, because while I was writing the story, I had no idea until recently that anyone was doing another “Animal Farm” movie, let along a “reimagined” one … so either I’m psychic, or (like the point of the introduction) we’re familiar enough with stories and history to see similarities with contemporary events to make a comparison. 

So perhaps this is more like a case of when when editorial cartoonists spontaneously come up with similar ideas… or when “Antz” and “Bugs’ Life” came out at the same time.

Anyhow, I hope this story will satisfy those who were looking forward to a more contemporary narrative but without the standard Hollywood tropes and marketing cliches.

*(Footnote: just in case anyone isn't familiar with the reference, the original story and inspiration is "Animal Farm", written by George Orwell in 1945 as an allegory of events that took place in the Soviet Union.)

(*Obviously inspired by King George III, and dressed as an 18th century British farmer 

[according to Google Image search])

(* 1. Pigs were the main leadership characters in the original Orwell story as well. 

2. That's "Corvid", not "Covid". Corvids are members of the crow family, known for their 

high level of intelligence and problem-solving abilities) 

(*Reference to the Declaration of Independence and the legend of Paul Revere: 

"The British are coming!")

(*1. General Washington helped defeat the British with the help of the French.  2. Yeah, suspension of disbelief, but it was a main plot element in the original story as well.)

*(Here we see the story is being told by one of the characters; the piglet will be a protagonist.  I chose this direction because the Revolution in this timeline happened in the distant past, before any of the characters were born, and most Americans have grown up learning about American history, so is seen through the eyes of the typical, somewhat naive American citizen whose idealization of America comes from what they learned in school.)

Stay tuned for the next chapter!