Mutant Reviewers from Hell do
"Baa-ram-ewe, baa-ram-ewe. To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true."

[year/rating] 1995 G [genre] Family Fantasy [director] Chris Noonan [starring] Christine Cavanaugh Miriam Margolyes Hugo Weaving James Cromwell

Tagline

A little pig goes a long way.

Summary Capsule

Gallant pig wins over farm animals and becomes the world's first sheep-pig

Mutant Meter

Movie Store [proceeds go toward monthly MRFH upkeep]

Check out this movie in VHS or DVD, and the soundtrack CD

Justin's Rating: Iiiiiiiit's BACON!
Justin's Review: A modern film fairy tale, Babe sets out to do nothing more than spin an interesting and moving yarn about a pig and a farmer who buck expectations and refuse to follow the way things usually are. Set in the format of a storyteller reading a children’s book (shades of The Princess Bride), Babe is separated into small chapters, their titles read by squeaky mice. And if you disrespect the mice... God help you if you disrespect them!

"Yet the humans in the film can’t hear them, which suggests to me that they are a lesser strain of homo sapiens and must be weeded out without remorse or mercy."

Our Babe, a naïve little runt, is won at a county fair by Farmer Hogget (James Cromwell, in perhaps his most lovable role ever) and brought to live on a quaint country farm. There resides a pretty eclectic collection of creatures, from a nasty cat to an anorexic duck to the king sheepdog, Rex (Agent Smith). We the audience are allowed to hear the animals talk, through a combination of animatronics and computer graphics that manipulate the mouths. Yet the humans in the film can’t hear them, which suggests to me that they are a lesser strain of homo sapiens and must be weeded out without remorse or mercy.

Sweet and lovable as he is, Babe doesn’t meekly settle into his sole purpose in life: to get fat and get eaten. Instead, he forms a connection with the local herd of sheep, and the Farmer gets crazy enough to see how far this pig can go. Can a pig, you know, be useful? Babe butts up against mean creatures and an even crueler world in the process, and we see whether he remains true to himself or conforms.

Surprisingly, there’s a very clever message in this film about racism. Many of the types of animals distrust and dislike the others, calling them names and thinking them stupid automatically. The dogs talk slowly to the sheep (since sheep are dumb) and the sheep do likewise (because dogs are, of course, ignorant). Hatred and suspicion run deep, but the child-like observations of our pig cut through the B.S. to get at the truth.

Of course, there’s also a message about how all animals talk and they have fairly strong "don’t kill us for food" stances to guilt us with, but hey, I like my green eggs and ham. What can I say?

I know although it’s a popular film, it’s probably not too manly to admit that as a grown adult, Babe puts a smile on my lips and a hard knot in my throat by the end. It’s just a good, good film. And the singing mice are on my side, so just watch out. Some pig.

Drew's shorts no taste good Hey, Babe's become a clickable link for MRFH! What else is on?

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• The duck crowing
• Singing mice!

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

The field mice thank you for staying to the very end

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

The talking pig is a combination of 48 real Yorkshire pigs plus an animatronic double. A makeup artist added toupee and eyelashes to each, and computer digitization manipulated pictures of the snout to make the pig appear to talk.

When James Cromwell was handed the screenplay for Babe, he thumbed through it to see how many lines he had. He saw that he didn't have that many, he decided that he would do it as a nice easy film. What he didn't realize was that he would have more screen time in this film than any of his previous films.

The film is based on a novel by Dick King-Smith.

Groovy Quotes

Narrator: This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever. There was a time not so long ago when pigs were afforded no respect, except by other pigs; they lived their whole lives in a cruel and sunless world. In those days pigs believed that the sooner they grew large and fat, the sooner they'd be taken into Pig Paradise, a place so wonderful that no pig had ever thought to come back.

Ferdinand: Christmas? Christmas means dinner, dinner means death! Death means carnage; Christmas means carnage!

Cat: So why do the Bosses keep a pig? The fact is that animals that don't seem to have a purpose really do have a purpose. The Bosses have to eat. It's probably the most noble purpose of all, when you come to think about it.

Fly: We are their masters, Babe. Let them doubt it for a second and they'll walk all over you.

Sheep: Baa-ram-ewe, baa-ram-ewe. To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true. Sheep be true. Baa-ram-ewe.

Narrator: And though every single human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say.
Farmer Hoggett: That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Ferdinand: I suppose the life of an anorexic duck doesn't amount to much in the broad scheme of things.

Babe: Move along there, ya... big buttheads!

Soundtrack Review

I had forgotten, until I re-watched this movie, how terrific the score was. It’s moving and exuberant, and when you add in Hogget’s rendition of "If I Had Words" plus all the mice songs, you’ve got an album no movie lover should be without. The fun part is that the soundtrack not only has the score, but also many of the quotes -- from the narrator, animals and mice -- that are blended in to give you a "highlights" overview of the film. This really livens up the score, and I wish more studios would take this approach to their soundtracks.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Chicken Run
• The Princess Bride
• Finding Nemo