Yes, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) financed the 1954 animated film adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The movie version notably alters the book’s ending.
Orwell’s novel, published in 1945, is a political fable based on the events of Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of Stalinism. It concerns a group of barnyard animals who overthrow and chase off their exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian society based on the founding principle “All animals are equal.” Eventually the animals’ intelligent and power-loving leaders, the pigs, subvert the revolution. Concluding that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others,” the pigs form a dictatorship even more oppressive and heartless than that of their former human masters.
The 1950s film version was made to support anti-Soviet propaganda during the Cold War, and its ending shows the animals overthrowing Napoleon, a dictator pig who represents Joseph Stalin. In the novel, Napoleon colludes with the animals’ former human masters.
A new animated film version was released in 2025, directed by Andy Serkis and featuring the voice talents of Glenn Close, Woody Harrelson, Laverne Cox, and other stars. This version was tailored to appeal to children, featuring rap songs, “potty humor,” and less violence than in the original story. It also targeted capitalism (rather than communism) and changed Orwell’s chilling ending to an optimistic conclusion.