Babe Collection

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Babe: Pig in the City

Kennedy Miller Productions

Universal Pictures

Australia

United States of America

English

E. G. Daily

Magda Szubanski

James Cromwell

Mickey Rooney

Mary Stein

Danny Mann

Glenne Headly

Steven Wright

James Cosmo

Nathan Kress

Myles Jeffrey

Julie Godfrey

Janet Foye

Pamela Hawkins

Paul Livingston

Kim Story

John Upton

Stanley Ralph Ross

Russi Taylor

Adam Goldberg

Eddie Barth

Bill Capizzi

Miriam Margolyes

Hugo Weaving

Jim Cummings

Katie Leigh

Evelyn Krape

Charles Bartlett

Michael Edward-Stevens

Al Mancini

Larry Moss

Roscoe Lee Browne

Lisa Bailey

Balyne Barbosa

Victor Brandt

Jeannie Elias

Pippa Grandison

Mark Hammond

J.D. Hall

Wendy Hammers

Scotty Leavenworth

Julie Oppenheimer

Deborah Packer

Roger Rose

Carly Schroeder

Joseph R. Sicari

Aaron Spann

Drew Lexi Thomas

Naomi Watts

Christian Manon

Richard Huggett

Cecelia Yates

Damian Monk

Anthony Phelan

Basil Clarke

Richard Carter

Barbara Harris

Dominic Condon

Doug Mitchell

George Miller

Andrew Lesnie

Jay Friedkin

Judy Morris

Mark Lamprell

Margaret Sixel

Nigel Westlake

Roger Ford

Bill Miller

Matt Villa

Wayne Pashley

Michael Thompson

Jacinta Hayne

Lynn Wheeler

Celinda Alvarado

Marcus D'Arcy

Roger Savage

Barbara Gibbs

Lorelle Adamson

Lesley Vanderwalt

Colin Deane

Bec Taylor

Gareth Vanderhope

Carolyn Johns

Gabrielle Healy

Tami Treadwell

Norma Moriceau

Alison Barrett

Robin Morgan

Ben Osmo

Tad Pride

John Simpson

Sophie Fabbri-Jackson

Gethin Creagh

P.J. Voeten

Kerry Lee Jury

Julius Chan

Robert Deschaine

Gerry Long

Ady Rose

Kerrie Brown

Colin Gibson

Ian McLoughlin

Peter Pound

Randy Newman

Peter Gabriel

Nikki Barrett

Phil Heywood

Pete Smith

Lyddy Van Gyen

Jasmine Yuen Carrucan

Roger Cowland

Maria Antoniv

Brit Sooby

Bernadette Winthers

Douglas 'Rocky' McDonald

Linda Megier

Melody Sorensen

Nash Edgerton

Glenn Ruehland

Guy Norris

Sharon Ross

Allen Hall

Martin G. Wood

Bill Westenhofer

Tex Kadonaga

Robert Allman

Filipe Manuel Neto

**True to the original, this sequel didn't deserve so much criticism and booing.**

I confess that I was impressed when I realized that this film had not only been a resounding failure at the box office, but also highly criticized and vilified, both by specialized and amateur critics. I may be a little biased due to the fact that the film was part of my late childhood, but in truth I believe it was not worthy of such a beating. There are plenty of frankly worse movies out there, like the “Ted” movies or even “Minions”, that haven't met with as much outrage. However, I think everyone who has seen the film agrees on one point: it is weaker than the original film.

The script picks up the story where the previous film left off: the little pig won the grand prize at the fair, became very famous and made his owner famous and happy. Despite all this, he inadvertently causes an accident that leaves his owner badly injured, and all the necessary medical care leaves him almost bankrupt. In order to prevent the farm from going to auction, Esme, his wife, decides to take the pig to a contest where she can receive a fat financial prize. For that, they have to travel by plane, but things don't go as expected, and they end lost and alone in the big city, a place where many people really don't like animals at all.

Alright, the originality of the first film is gone, and the rural charm is not here. I handled it well, my concern was whether the sequel would contradict the original film or be unable to match it in quality. And the film proved to be quite solid, capable of matching its predecessor and giving us a story that follows up on previous events in a minimally credible and well-structured way. Yes, it is also a much darker film than its predecessor: the portrayal of the city is quite loaded, with the aversion to animals and the way in which they are persecuted and even killed. However, I dare to say that it corresponds to the reality, and that this film does nothing more than show that, and teach young people (the target audience of the film) to have more compassion for animals. And that, without a doubt, is a valuable message to convey.

Where I think the film really failed was in the way certain details were thought through and carried out. Ferdinand, the duck, is a very nice character, but he is misused throughout the entire film, so it would have been better to do without him if it wasn't really possible to use him better. The Pitbull character, which has great relevance at one point, is discarded very early, and it could have been better to keep it a little longer, create a subplot around it, perhaps. There are, moreover, a lot of animals and a lot of attention scattered by them without much benefit for the film. The party scene, with poor Esme dressed as a clown and hanging from a chandelier, is very funny (perhaps one of the funniest) but seems to be out of line with the rest of the film. And I also cannot help but boo the way the monkeys were used: it is quite obvious that they are a representation of black people, and this is more evident by the choice of the name Thelonious (alluding to the black jazz musician Thelonious Monk) for one of them. This is just plain racism. This may not have been the intention of the producers, they may not have thought about it, but it is quite common, in racist circles, to compare black people to monkeys, and I saw this comparison in these characters. Yes, it deserves to be booed.

Technically, the film matches its predecessor: the visuals are incredible, the design used for the sets and costumes is magnificent, the cinematography is superb and the work of the voice actors is simply impeccable. There are a lot of animatronic puppets here, and they're used in a believable way (if not as much as in the original movie). The human characters are frankly secondary: Cromwell is dropped, Mickey Rooney is one-dimensional and not particularly interesting. Even Magda Szubanski is underused. Faithful to the original film, the soundtrack continues to be based on themes of classical and opera music, to which, curiously, the song “Non Je ne Regrette Rien” by Edith Piaf has been added, the only song in both films that does not belong to the original film. to the conventional classical repertoire.

The Big Blue Balloon Escape

BABE: PIG IN THE CITY —  George Miller makes one for the grownups | MUBI Podcast

Babe Escapes

Babe - Pig in the City (1998) Teaser (VHS Capture)

Babe: Pig in the City Trailer (1998)

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Babe: Pig in the City

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Cast

E. G. Daily

Magda Szubanski

James Cromwell

Mickey Rooney

Mary Stein

Danny Mann

Glenne Headly

Steven Wright

James Cosmo

Nathan Kress

Box office

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