Babe

***Babe*** is a 1995 Australian-American comedy-drama film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog.

## Synopsis

A gentle farmer named Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet named Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner when Farmer Hoggett decides to show him at the next county fair, Babe bonds with motherly border collie Fly (Miriam Margolyes) and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other farm animals, including Fly's jealous husband Rex, accept a pig who doesn't conform to the farm's social hierarchy?

## Why This Movie Will Do

1. The story about a pig not accepting the norm is pretty amazing as it has some mature moments as well as funny moments and sometimes cute moments.
2. The writing is gloriously well-done. It gives the film with amazing and quotable dialogue.
3. It has astounding performances from James Cromwell and Magda Szubanski, it also has beautiful vocal performances from great talent such as the late Christine Cavanaugh as Babe and Miriam Margolyes and Hugo Weaving as the farmer's sheepdogs, Fly and Rex.
4. It has some excellent cinematography that makes for some of the most beautiful shots in the film.
5. It has a very fantastic soundtrack which features Symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns as its main theme.
6. Many of the characters are likable including Fly the sheepdog, Babe the pig, and Arthur Hoggett.
7. It truly stays faithful to original book it was based on very well enough.
8. It has a lot of heartbreaking or emotional scenes, (eg. when the wolves kill Maa and Rex's fight with Fly.)
9. It also has a couple of funny moments (usually involving Ferdinand the Duck), such as Babe and Ferdinand sneaking into the house to get rid of the alarm clock, with Babe messing everything up.
10. ***"That'll do, pig. That'll do."***
11. It could be one of the best live-action talking animal movies of all time.
12. The CGI/animatronics/real-life animals are seamless.
13. It's made just as much for kids as for adults. Although kids won't get the part where Ferdinand mentions being anorexic.
14. **"Christmas means dinner. Dinner means death. Death means carnage! CHRISTMAS MEANS CARNAGE!"**
15. Unlike other live-action talking animal movies, this movie succeeds at making the animals emotionally expressive without them looking cartoonish.

## Bad Qualities

1. Some characters can come off mean-spirited, like Rex at first, and the Hogget’s cat, Duchess.
2. Some scenes (like Maa dying) can be too intense for younger viewers.
3. It doesn't make sense for Charles Bartlett (a male voice actor) to voice the cow since cows are female cattle.
4. Farmer Hoggett's granddaughter is very ungrateful and rude, not to mention her crying is so very annoying and irritating. Thankfully, she's only present for a short while during the Christmas chapter.

## Reception

*Babe* was a critical success and was very well received. It currently holds a 97% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and a 100% approval rating from top critics, making it one of the best rated films on their website. It was also a box office success, grossing $254,134,910 worldwide.

Due to its title and subject matter not being halal, *Babe* was initially banned in Malaysia, although the ruling was overturned almost a year later and the film was released direct-to-VHS.

## External Links

* Template:IMDb
* Template:Rotten Tomatoes