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Directed by: Chris Noonan Starring: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh From IMDB: "Farmer Hoggett wins a runt piglet at a local fair and young Babe, as the piglet decides to call himself, befriends and learns about all the other creatures on the farm. He becomes special friends with one of the sheepdogs, Fly. With Fly's help, and Farmer Hoggett's intuition, Babe embarks on a career in sheepherding with some surprising and spectacular results." That sounds very cheesy, I know. But "Babe" is absolutely one of the best family films of the last decade. After seeing it approximately seventeen times on rainy days in middle school (it was a pretty big hit in 1995), I recently had the urge to rewatch this movie after seeing a guy herding sheep down Broadway on the Letterman show. Sick at home one night last week, I finally had the opportunity, and was reminded why I enjoyed the movie so much in the first place. The plot description above is essentially correct. What it leaves out, first of all, is the great cast of characters both human and animal. Farmer Hoggett, played by James Cromwell, is tall, lean and stoic, but the lack of emotion he displays outwardly does not translate to a lack of thought or ingenuity. One of the movie's many small pleasures is seeing this extremely passive character come alive in the strangest ways. Meanwhile, his wife, played by Magda Szubanski, is short, round and never stops talking as she dotes lovingly on her husband, her progeny, or the animals she's fattening up for a holiday meal. The animals are great, too, most notably the sheepdogs Rex and Fly (who have probably the most textured relationship of any pair of canine spouses in any movie ever) and Ferdinand the duck, a cynical neurotic trying to find ways to make himself more useful alive than dead to the Hoggetts. Babe, the gallant pig at the heart of the story, is actually pretty simple in his demeanor: he's just a damned polite and pleasant pig that you can't help but root for. What the plot description also declines to mention are the touches of darkness that run throughout the film from its first frame, thousands of piglets nursing from their mothers' teats in the small, lightless pens of a hog farm, just before the adults are all rounded up for slaughter. This theme of carnivorousness is a constant presence, along with other veins of violence and unpleasantness. The movie was shot in Australia, and I believe it's meant to be set in New Zealand, which makes sense, because America doesn't make movies this dark about talking pigs. America makes movies like "Gordy" (another talking-pig movie that was released almost simultaneously but was nowhere near as successful with audiences). While it's very cool, it may also be too frightening or disturbing for very young children; I would say it's about 50% darker than "Chicken Run." The movie's also just plain funny (with no small thanks to the Greek chorus of singing mice), balanced out with some really nice moments of sentiment. Farmer Hoggett's ode to Babe makes me tear up everytime, drat it. This isn't a terribly brilliant movie, but I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys smart kids' films and especially to anyone with children themselves. 4.5/5, partly because I think a great family movie deserves a bit more credit than a great film in any other genre. Without that consideration, it would probably be a 4/5. [Side note: while copying info from the IMDB page for this post, I noticed that Hugo Weaving voiced the male sheepdog in the movie, which is hilarious.] RATING: 4.5 PROS: Funny, cute, strong characters, kind of dark CONS: The whole live-action talking animal dilemma, kind of dark ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://imdb.com/title/tt0112431/
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Jul 20, 2004 01:09
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This movie always reminds me of my late grandfather, since it was his favorite movie and I watched it all the time when I went to my grandparents' house. Even without that special connection, I love this movie. They just don't make movies with this much heart anymore. Ferdinand is great, and the ending is one of my all-time favorites.
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Oct 24, 2004 09:13
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This is one of my favorite movies of all times. And it's a movie about a talking pig. I'm not sure what first led me to rent this back in 1995 - I think my group of hip high school senior friends were looking for a bad movie to make fun of. We made a mistake, obviously, but were so pleasantly surprised that we didn't care. Please don't let the fact that this is a movie about a talking pig keep you from seeing it. There's a reason that Cromwell was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Babe's owner: he was fantastic! His little jig is one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema in my opinion. Rarely has someone said so much with so few words. The mice are an added bonus. All in all, a great movie for children and adults. I give it a 5
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Oct 26, 2004 02:56
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