"Babe - The pig who thought he was a pig!" - My favorite weird saying for 1995

The biggest surprise of the Academy Awards nominations for 1995 was "Babe," an Australian, G-rated film about a pig who wants to be a sheepdog. Of course, I had no desire to see it until it was nominated - and then my only reason was to lambast it and the Academy for having nominated it. The Academy body was obviously trying to make a makeshift peace with the so-called moral majority/family movement that seemed to permeate the media in the mid-90's. These moral zealots insists on imprinting their narrow-minded fascism upon all who surround them. The Academy should be shot for bowing to their pressure tactics by nominating a film about a talking pig! But surprise, "Babe" is an odd and almost dark film that somehow masks itself as children's fair. If this is a "family" film - it's for The Addams Family.

Narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown, the film seems like an odd cross between "Animal Farm," "Charlotte's Web," Disney fare and a Terry Gilliam film. The piece is so dark it screams for light to break us from the bleak oppression. Brown's booming, ominous voice permeates the darkness as we see pigs being hauled off to the slaughter. He speaks of the society of animals and their purpose in the world. It's quite eerie.

The film certainly isn't for kids. The small group I saw it with, made up mainly of parents with small children, was filled with the hubbub and noise of bored youngsters. During one particularly "dark" moment, set in a farmer's slaughterhouse, one small voice actually piped up with a tearful "I'm scared," loud enough for the entire room to hear. This film talks of isolation, ostracism, the food chain, man's inhumanity to animals, animals inhumanity to animals, and other cruelty. It's heady stuff for your average kindergartener.

The film centers on "Babe," a young piglet sent to live on a sheep farm when he is won in a raffle. The master of the farm, played by recognizable James Cromwell (He will always be Stretch Cunningham to me - for his appearances on "All in the Family" in the 70's.), is a kind and adventurous soul. Babe must learn his way around the social structure of a farm where there are no other pigs. He is adopted by a kind female sheepdog, when her pups are sold, and makes friends with a duck. The duck, oddly, wants to be a rooster. Here Babe learns he doesn't have to be a pig; He can be a sheepdog like his matriarchal figure if he wishes it so. He also learns that some will try and hassle you if you attempt to be different (go against society) and also that you can get some people to bend to your will by using kindness rather than viciousness. Babe's dream of being a sheepdog comes true, of course, but there is no noble spirit behind it. Babe doesn't understand why the sheep need to be herded. He doesn't understand why he must help humans. He doesn't even understand that a pig's main purpose is to become food for humans until we are well into the film. There is no reason for Babe to become a sheep dog and yet he becomes one just the same.

The film's big attractions seems to be the animatronic animals and computer animation that makes the barnyard critters in the film appear to be mouthing dialogue. But, this actually takes a back seat to Director Chris Noonan's dark tone. The animals never really do anything all that amazing. This is no "Jurassic Park."

Instead, note how Noonan casts the film and pictures his characters. Almost all the humans in the film, with the exception of Cromwell, are fat, unsavory idiots. Cromwell's wife is a real porker. Here Noonan seems to be making a statement about how humans (mis)use animals as a food source. The film's humans are constantly talking about food and bustling about the sets like gigantic bulls in china shops. Noonan's film makes cartoons out of them all. Even Cromwell becomes a cartoon as he dances to show Babe what a simple- minded git he is. His buffoonery, for what it's worth, gives the ailing pig the will to live. (He is despondent once he learns humans eat pigs). Maybe Babe realizes the only thing worse than being eaten by a human is actually BEING a human.

The film is also quite cacophonous. Everything is loud and irritating. Of course, the theatre where I saw the film had the volume cranked up to the max, but I assume the film would be just as cluttered sounding at a low volume. If the clanking of the humans and the clucking of the animals aren't enough to drive you batty here, Noonan also has 3 mice with the highest, most squeaky, most grating, fingernails-on-the- chalkboard, Chipmunks on 78rpm, sounding voices act as segue announcers throughout the film. This never fails to make the hair on the backs of our necks stand directly on end.

"Babe" is a weird amalgamation of animal rights activism masking as a modern Grimm fairy tale, computer animation and supposed children's fare. In the end, it betrays most of it's dark qualities to become just a children's film with the idealistic message that you can be anything you want to be at it's core. (You don't have to go to the slaughterhouse if you don't want to. You can learn how to be useful for more than your caloric content). If Noonan had stuck closer to his film's dark qualities in the climax then the plot would have ended with Babe being eaten as the main course for the celebratory dinner Cromwell gives after he (and Babe) win the Grand Nationals for sheepdogs.

Does "Babe" deserve any Academy Award nominations? No. But it comes a lot closer to deserving them than one would expect.

Note: Based on the book by Dick King Smith. Script by Noonan and George Miller.

Babe's handler and trainer is Karl Lewis Miller. Some animatronic animals were developed by Jim Henson's company. The animatronic sheep were designed by John Cox and Robot Technology.

Director of Photography is Andrew Lesine. Opening Titles by Animal Logic. Music by Nigel Westlake. Lyrics to "If I had Words" by John Hodge.

Filmed on location in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales Australia.

Oscar nominations: Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Cromwell), Best Director (Noonan), Best Adapted Screenplay (Noonan and Miller), Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects.

Review written in 1996

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