Some people say Revelation is purely symbolic.  Some people say it is literal. Personally I consider all of Revelation open to a literal interpretation, i.e. it was literally what events on earth looked like from the vantage point of heaven to a human transported there (i.e. John).

John is in eternity looking down at events on earth occurring in time. That being the case there is bound, even for this reason alone, to be considerable differences between what he saw of the same events in comparison to someone viewing from earth in time.  Add to that that he was also more than likely looking at the spiritual rather than the corporeal bodies of each participant and the imagery in Revelation is more easily understood (perhaps).

Here are some thoughts:

Revelation is the spiritual view of events on earth through the second heaven – c.f. Daniel 7.

Animals represent creatures, corporations with no relationship with God, humans represent creatures or corporations capable of a relationship with God.  Corporations in this sense are collectives of people with one spirit, e.g. nations, empires, companies, etc.

Does that help?