Babe: Pig in the City (1998) Reviews

• I hated this movie :-(

  wvejumper2003-03-27

  It's so technically well executed and gorgeous to look at (obviously George Miller asked for and got a huge budget this time around) but almost every thing that happens to these cutest-of-cute animals is *mean-spirited*. The sweetness of the last film is gone, as is that movie's easy-going but tightly-woven plot. Instead we have Hollywood histrionics and chase scenes and randomness that just seems like delay tactics for the first 3/4 of the film. For example, we follow that duck every now and then as he chases after but never finds Babe. The duck arrives in the city and is immediately shot at by twenty members of a rifle range. Funny? No. It's done in an ultra-realistic way, it looks like he's actually injured, there's no Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote cartoonness to this violence. Finally after much depressing animal cruelty the surviving heroes get together and head off towards a final rescue act, but by that point I'd turned off. It involved the farmers wife in a clown suit bungee jumping around a restaurant and a bunch of balloons and other silly fighting. Not a very fun movie, and it could have been! worst moments: * Andy Rooney, made up as a clown, led off to die in a stretcher. * Cute puppy says, "my human put me in a sack and threw me in the water"

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• Bad sequel to a good movie.

  wittop1999-01-10

  The original (Babe) was a charming, low-key movie. The sequel has taken Babe to the city, but ignores the charm of his naievity which made the original such a success.. Instead, we're treated to animals being run over by trucks (almost, but scarey), drowned (almost, but frightening in the possibilities) plus a chase scene that goes on forever and in its length becomes pointless. How much nicer it would have been to have Babe be awestruck by the sights and sounds of the city--and how much funnier. After having seen this I would not take a child to this show. An adult daughter walked out and I suspect others did, too.

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• this pig won't hunt

  triple-x1998-12-06

  Yes, the animals are cute, Babe is a charming creation, and the movie looks like a million (or 90 million) bucks. As the saying goes, it's all up there on the screen. But what's also up there is a weird mean-spiritedness and a sense of frantic desperation. I wasn't hoping for a mere rehash of the first film (in fact, I was hoping it wouldn't spawn a sequel at all), but "Babe: Pig in the City" follows the standard blueprint for sequels: bigger, faster, louder, MORE! Not to mention unnecessary and utterly inferior.

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• Lost its charm

  SnoopyStyle2013-10-05

  This takes place right after the contest of the original movie. Babe and Farmer returns to the farm. One day Babe's curiosity causes Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) to be severely hurt. The farm starts to get into trouble with the bank, and Mrs Farmer Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) is forced to take Babe to another contest. On the way they got into trouble with airport security and they're stuck in the big bad city. This is an ugly movie. No matter how bright the picture is, the city is full of uncaring mean-spirited people. It is completely opposite of the nice fun gentle hopeful spirit of the original. The exterior shots have it's fanciful charm, but the interior of the hotel is just completely artificial. Also the movie misses the presence of James Cromwell. He's only in the movie for about 15 minutes. He provides the steadying influence of his acting prowess. Without him, all that's left is the animals and Esme doing some funny bits.

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• Piggy in a muddle

  PapaT_862009-10-21

  When George Miller's sequel to the popular and prestigious family film Babe hit cinemas in late 1998 it was squeezed into a crowded family film market, having to share the spotlight with Pixar's second film A Bug's Life and the surprising popular cinematic debut of Nickelodeon's Rugrats. As a result very few people actually saw Babe: Pig in the City while it played in theatres. In proportion to the film's budget so few that it lead to the dismissal of several high-ranking executives at Universal. While it is true that the public cannot truthfully dislike a film it has not seen, I think it's fair to say that the film got an at best mixed response among those of the public that did see it both on it's original theatrical release and subsequently on video and TV, with many viewers alienated by it and few finding it as endearing as the original. Yet there have been many vocal and noteworthy fans of the film ever since its release. The much missed Gene Siskel placed Babe: Pig in the City at the very top of what would tragically turn out to be his last annual Top 10 list. His on screen partner Roger Ebert also found room for it on his Top 10. While not many professional critics quite shared their level of enthusiasm (although the film received generally decent reviews) the film nonetheless developed a kind of cult following who did, among their number being acclaimed musician Tom Waits and popular "internet personality" the Nostalgia Critic. I saw Babe: Pig in the City upon its UK television premier when I was 13; not really, in my opinion, still a child, yet not at an age where I feel I had fully developed critical facilities that might appreciate the nuances and qualities the film's strongest advocates see in it. At the time I thought it was pretty much a fiasco. Would I keep that opinion or join the film's list of fans after revisiting it as an adult? Well I'm sorry to say I side with the public over the critics on this one, and still found it to be pretty much a fiasco. I can't even really see what the film's fans see in it. Ultimately, it's a pretty dull slog of a film, with not enough of interest to justify even its slender running time. Granted, there is some good stuff in here. The cinematography, camera-work and production design are often sumptuous, and far above anything you would normally see in a live action kid's movie. The early scenes, set on the same farm the first film took place in, do have the kind of mythical, fairy tale quality Miller clearly intended the whole film to have, but which didn't come across in later parts of the film. And towards the end there is a imaginatively staged and pleasingly old-fashioned slapstick romp involving a clown suit, a lot of bouncing, a well-stacked pyramid of wine glasses and a frustrated waiter. And... that's about it. Which is not to say I cannot appreciate the level of ambition Miller brought to the movie. I think it's ultimately failed ambition, but I can certainly appreciate the effort. Pig in the City is certainly one of the more unusual big budget sequels out there and about as far away from a carbon copy of the original you can get (although perhaps the mice and "that'll do pig" could have been left out this time). But sometimes you find failed ambition entertaining and interesting to watch in it's own right, and sometimes you merely appreciate it. Unfortunately for me, Babe: Pig in the City falls into the later category. I also find Pig in the City to be short on the charm that its fans must see in it. After the early scenes we are "treated to" near-fatal injuries, a (thankfully off-screen) cavity check, an group of terminal ill children, starvation and a dog facing something which comes disturbingly close to water-boarding. That's could all be fine in the right context, but this time out Babe doesn't have an interesting enough adventure or a strong enough narrative to get us through it; we just slog from one depressing incident to the next. Do I think kids will be adversely affected by this stuff? Not for a minute, but I don't think they'll be particularly entertained either. I know I wasn't. Also, I hate to say this as I know they can't talk back and are maybe even dead now and certainly didn't ask for this kind of exposure, but a lot of the animals in this movie are awfully hard on the eyes. Am I alone in really not liking looking at monkeys wearing T-shirts, dresses and lipstick? About the only likable animals who have considerable screen time are Ferdinand the Duck, and Babe himself (adorably voiced by singer Elizabeth Daily, ironically perhaps best known for voicing Tommy Pickles from the Rugrats), both of whom can be enjoyed in the vastly superior first film. Babe: Pig in the City is well intentioned and in some areas well executed, but if you want to be charmed or entertained you're probably better off watching Peppa Pig!

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