Babe

Babe

I am quoting this line because such a language is not expected in a movie about a smart little pig. In fact, ‘Babe’ is one of the most intelligent films about pigs. It has a G rating and yet all the people and almost all animals in it are cleverer than characters from most R-rated movies that I have watched.

The setting of this film is Australia where we find a young pig as our hero. He sees off other pigs with envy as they get into trucks never to come back again. They are going to Pig Paradise according to their belief: “a place so wonderful that nobody ever came back.” But Babe does not join them somehow. Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) notices him and takes him home because he likes him; yes, there passes something between them which might be interpreted as sharing the same fate or destiny.

So Babe arrives at Hoggett’s farm where he gets adopted by Fly female border collie who raises him like one of her puppies. Life on the farm is nice except for few challenges encountered by different animals living there in terms of communication skills among themselves. Ferdinand, the duck believes he is a pig hence sobs while humans eat animals for dinner “There must be far-off lands with kinder dispositions”. Rex male collie hates sheep due to his poor hearing capacity whereas Cat the cat just has an unfriendly nature or behavior towards others including Babe.

Still, life remains enjoyable for him since apart from being very intelligent (everybody knows pigs are smarter than horses and probably dogs but definitely sheep), each episode features short musical interludes performed by group tiny mice acting like chorus members whose rendition of “Blue Moon” should be seen to be believed or appreciated.

Then suddenly something strange happens: Babe turns out having inherent herding skills .Farmer Hoggett who would try anything once wonders whether maybe.. nawww! A PIG CANNOT HERD SHEEP Can it? But dogs (including his foster mum) advice him. “Bite them! Do whatever it takes to bend them to your will!” Hence Babe tries biting a sheep’s leg using dog approach. Sheep gets offended deeply.

“I apologize for having bitten you,” says Babe shedding tears of regret.

“All one has to do is ask, ” replies Maa (patient mother sheep).

At this point there comes melodrama which I will not disclose save for the fact that Babe almost finds himself on Pig Paradise once again. Then the movie concludes with National Sheep Dog Trials where snobbish dog owners take great offence at pig’s pretensions.

‘Babe’ is an endearing and cleverly made film which in contrast to some other family movies does not patronize viewers even for second. It considers using words that kids might not understand as well as performances that are simply top drawer (James Cromwell farmer; Magda Szubanski his wife always play their parts convincingly).

Rather than most kids’ shows, it doesn’t have a contrived plot. It is based on the character and upbringing of the animals in the story. This show is so smart. It knows stuff and teaches things. Also, it is made really well; a lot of adults might find it more entertaining than some children will because they can appreciate the cleverness behind this program.

Watch Babe For Free On Gomovies.