Babe: Pig in the City Rating: Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Magda Szubanski Mickey Rooney Elizabeth Daily James Taylor Complete Cast (15 total)

Babe: Pig in the City Reviews

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"Ferdinand the Duck - Witness to Insanity!"
Just before he passed away, Gene Siskel made this his best picture of the year. I just watched this movie again and enjoyed it more this time than I remembered. Babe has a unique visual quality that this movie takes to another level. The representation of the Metropolis is fairly amazing.

In this movie we get a fable more about the animals than the people. Farmer Hoggett appears only in the beginning and end and Mrs. Hoggett has the job of delivering the pig to the city and taking him back home while providing some determined comic relief (as she did in the first movie). Mickey Rooney has an amazingly touching almost-a-cameo role, as well.

I think the fable with the animals showing how a good heart (Babe) can turn a harsh and hopeless situation into something livable and meaningful. Ferdinand seeking out Babe to be with his Luck Pig is a very neat sub-story that provides some great laughs as well. I found the scene where Flealick is thrown hard from his bite on the captors' truck and ends up in a broken heap to be quite touching. His semi-conscious dream of being whole again and leaping for butterflies is just right.

You either like Babe's sweetness or you don't. I do. When he is sent to face his doom with the Doberman and the Pit Bull because he is told they are sheep he tries to handle it with what he knows and what he is told. Still, when it all goes bad he does his level best to survive and when he does, he goes back to rescue his tormentor. Nice stuff.

Probably the lackluster reaction to the movie came more from its split character as a slapstick comedy (when Mrs. Hoggett reclaims Babe at the formal dinner in the clown suit) and as a somewhat grim morality play (when the animals struggle to survive on their own and their capture and escape from the authorities). Such intensity mixed with a stack of champagne glasses at risk can confuse.

Stop worrying about the kids
Forget any preconceptions about this franchise that may have been established with "Babe." While that film was indeed a masterpiece, this is a sequel with its own agenda and purpouse. Try to reach back, dear ones,to your first experience with the tales told by the Brothers Grimm. That's the tone this film embraces. Like those dark tales of yore, "Babe- Pig in the city" establishes a universe wherein the innocent are victims, and only the truest and most noble of hearts can conquer the adversity the world often presents us with. The plot: after the sheep-pig inadvertently causes a disastrous accident that leaves Farmer Hogget unable to provide for his farm, Babe and Mrs.Hogget travel to the big city to earn money in an effort to keep the farm afloat. There is violence in this film, and many moments that are darker and more mean spirited than in the first film. And I say "bravo" to this decision- becuase what director George Miller has provided is a wonderful parable about the need for each and every one of us to retain that sense of decency and compassion that defines our humanity (porcinity?) , even in the face of the most dire of circumstances. Stop asking yourself if the kids will be okay with this movie, and instead ask yourself if you enjoyed it. This is the definitive family film - it has enough to entertain the tykes, but it is squarely aimed at the adults who will sit through this with them. With impressive visuals, a terrfic story and - ultimately- a message that needs to be heard in this day and age,"Babe - Pig in the City" is a masterpiece of a fable. A cautionary tale that both engages and enlivens. There is love, laughter and hope to be found within this film. Don't miss this picture by any means. You'll be better for the experience.

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