Now Babe leaves the farm, as the title indicates, and he ventures to the city, where director George Miller provides us with a hyperactive fairy-tale atmosphere.
City buildings look like gingerbread houses, all rounded and fat and heavy.
However, within the huge sets and the enormous cast of characters, Babe gets lost. For example, the plot itself is initiated when Babe tries to help Farmer Hoggett, but Babe's good intentions only cause Hoggett to be crushed at the bottom of the farm's well by machinery he was lowering on a rope. In another scene, a squad of policemen descend on a hotel that's overrun by animals. Like a squadron of stormtroopers, they throw nets over the critters and push them into cages. This is surprisingly violent material considering the sweet tone of the first movie.