Babe ***** (1995, James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh) – Classic Movie Review 1391

It’s a real pig to make a successful film with universal appeal to adults and children alike, so this 1995 Aussie heart-warmer is as great a surprise as it is a delight.

Now this is a fairy story, folks, based on British author Dick King-Smith’s children’s book The Sheep-Pig, so if all you’re sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin. Once upon a time there was a cute pink piglet in prime condition called Babe, who is won at a fair by kindly old farmer Arthur Hoggett, but because Babe’s an orphan he’s gone to the dogs, brought up by sheepdog Fly with her puppies.

There are no flies on Fly, nor on her mate Rex, but when rustlers attack the farm it’s Babe who comes to the rescue as a sheep-pig, rounding up the flock and saving the day. This prompts farmer Hoggett to enter Babe in the local sheepdog trials, and with the judges and crowd just scoffing, we’re all set for the nailbiting finish. Well that’s all the pig tale for now – I didn’t promise to tell you the end of the story, did I?

The film is entirely unexpectedly funny, charming and intelligent, with a witty, knowing screenplay by director Chris Noonan and George (Mad Max) Miller, and two screen-hogging human central performances from the six-foot seven actor James Cromwell who looks like a benign Easter Island statue and rotund Aussie comedy star Magda Szubanski, ideally cast as the farmer and his wife. No pasty-faced luvvies these: Cromwell and Szubanski both have authentic-looking lived-in, weather-beaten faces.

Still, the film isn’t about actors, it’s about animals. And this is where it scores the bull’s-eye. Technically co-writer George Miller’s production is wonderful, with the human stars and real animals mixing so seamlessly with the Jim Henson Creature Shop animatronics that it’s sometimes impossible to tell whether you’re looking at fake or real fur. Only the Blue Persian Cat looks like a naff children’s TV puppet, and probably this is deliberate to tone down the villainous reality of the cat, a vicious creature who confronts Babe with the appalling truth that a pig’s purpose in life is to be eaten.

The most extraordinary thing about this fairy-story movie is that, undercutting any sentimentality, real, sometimes harsh things happen – animals die, people are greedy, there’s prejudice on the farm, pig-headed rebels beat the system. OK, the animals are outrageously cute and you are going to have to listen to Jonathon Hodges’s pop hit from Saint-Saens’s Organ Symphony ‘If I Had Words’. But any way you cut it, Babe really brings home the bacon. Christine Cavanaugh provides the voice of Babe and Miriam Margolyes that of Fly the Sheepdog.

A bit hit, but a much less successful sequel, Babe: Pig in the City, followed in 1998.

Szubanski starred in Goddess in 2013.

http://derekwinnert.com/goddess-laura-michelle-kelly-ronan-keating-movie-review/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1391

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