9. Babe: Pig in the City
Wait, what? Surely this is a joke? The first Babe film was a wonderful, sweet childrens fable about a tenacious little piglet that dreamed of being a sheepdog and eventually realized that dream with a little help from his barnyard friends. The sequel was a beautifully strange and surprisingly dark effort that looked like Roald Dahl fell asleep watching Blade Runner, following the little pig from the comfort of his farm to the dangers of the big city. Despite the friendly narrator and the assurances that everyone lives happily ever after, something feels off. Theres an odd sense that only the first scenewith Babe accidentally causing Farmer Hoggett to fall to the bottom of the well, with the pulley system landing on his headhappens in the same universe as the award-nominated first feature. After that, when Babe and Mrs. Hoggett set off to the city, they encounter a world that looks completely fabricated from a childs limited perspective, complete with a horizon line that has the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate bridge, and the Sydney opera house all crammed together. The streets and their inhabitants, including a grimy, scary clown played by Mickey Rooney, feel ported in from a Terry Gilliam film. Babe gets separated from Esme and comes to the rescue of an entire apartment full of animals that need his help. In the end, they all go back to the country together, having saved the farm, and Farmer Hogget is on the mend and capable of mustering a Thatll do pig, thatll do. Far too convenient, even for a fairy tale. As an optimist, Id never subscribe to this theory, but here it goes. Death was always a part of the Babe world, even if it was mostly off-screen. There doesnt seem much chance of the farmer surviving the fall down the well, less so when you consider the machinery crashing down upon him. After his presumed death, the farm animals know their world is in danger, and they know that Babe feels the guilt for it. What probably starts as a kind-hearted attempt to lighten the pigs load and give him a quest to preoccupy his mind becomes a full-blown delusion. I dont doubt the bit about Mrs. Hogget and Babe going abroad to get funding for the farm, but the rest of this strange nightmare world is Babes coming to grips with the death of his master and the jeopardy hes placed his friends in. Look at the facts; the new animals he meets all live in an enclave that reminds of the farm, but doesnt make too much sense existing in a city environment. For Babe, this is how domesticated animals livegrouped together and resisting the world of the humans. The first really telling point is the death of Rooneys clown, the father figure and provider of this half-way house. When hes gone, the animals are brutally taken away and locked up. So, Babe must go and rescue them, facing death along the way, seen in a drowning pit bull and the deceased Fleanik who is literally called back from the great beyond by Babes pleading. In the end hes reunited with Esme in a scene where she, wearing the dead clowns costume, swoops in and rescues Babe. The entire trip, in a sense, has been the little pig fending off his guilt, triumphing over mortality, and realizing that his old master is gone and someone else cares for him now. His delusions follow him home in a world just the left of the 20th century" and the fact Babe generates income is probably the only thing that keeps his crazy little ass from being shipped to the meat plant.