BABE: PIG IN THE CITY
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Universal Pictures Director: George Miller Writer: George Miller, Judy Morris, Mark Lamprell Cast: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Mickey Rooney, Mary Stein, Roscoe Lee Browne, E.G. Daily, Danny Mann, Glenne Headly, James Cosmo, Stanley Ralph Ross
Opening up on a farm that's so cozy and picturesque that it seems not of this earth, "Babe: Pig in the City" brings forth memories of the all-time great animal picture, "Lassie Come Home." Like that 1943 masterwork, "Babe" centers on a poor family, one which may have to sell not only its prized animals but the entire spread as well. The soulless bankers have come with the necessary papers: owners Hoggett (James Cromwell) and his rotund wife (Magda Szubanski) need a plan. While this picture is more fanciful than Fred Wilcox's 1943 film--indeed it is propelled by computer animation which puts traditionally hostile animals in the same picture talking to one another--it lacks "Lassie"'s sentimental center, a small boy (played by the late great Roddy McDowall). For a good deal of its 96-minute length it features only animals, forcing the largely pre-adolescent audience to identify with a pig or one of her buddies, be it a dog, a kitten, a duck, a goldfish-- even a trio of singing mice that might give Bill Gates ideas. Its second flaw is that it lacks the focused plot of its predecessor, which features the same pair of Hoggetts with fewer animals, one which kept the audience with both feet off the floor rooting for the piggy to transcend his breed and become a sheep dog.
The film is directed and co-written by George Miller who uses Australian director Chris Noonan's 1995 characters (created by a book written by Dick King-Smith), and once again combines real animals, animatronic doubles, and computer technology, while expanding the winning special effects.
At the commercial screening I attended on the fourth day of the film's tenure, the audience of mostly kids were uncannily quiet throughout, which is a good sign. Yet I watched two children, each about six years old, burst into tears near the beginning and thereafter counted ten family groups quickly and silently departing the theater. Why the agitation? It turns out that this sequel, despite its G rating, has a rather dark text, welcome enough by in adult movies for viewers who do not share a audience desire for celluloid elevator music. But why the need for grim images in a kids' romp? I suppose most fables have their murky side but that's often hidden in the subtext. "Babe," however, begins with the good Farmer Hoggett's falling into a well (which is somehow Babe's fault), shows him wrapped form head to toe in bandages, his family gathered around him as though he were on his deathbed. It segues into the big city, to which Babe has repaired with Mrs. Hoggett--who expects to make some money in a shepherding presentation. Before the porcine duo can even enter the shabby, walk-up hotel--all they can afford--Mrs. Hoggett is strip-searched for drugs behind a curtain after a hard-nosed narcotics-sniffing beagle has erroneously singled her out.
The movie is brimming with hostility from both animals and people. Virtually every human in the story is antagonistic. Hotel owners impolitely refuse to accept animals. One who finally does is unsympathetically eccentric, asking a barrage of questions and answering them all herself. Animal control officials brutally round up monkeys, ducks, and dogs, dragging them with sticks, enveloping them with nets, and throwing them into trucks. The pilot of the plane carrying Hoggett and friend into the city takes off without allowing the farmer to pack the duck. What for adults may pass as a funny scene of a quack-quack flying alongside the aircraft until he can no longer catch it may be interpreted by the small fry as its desperate attempt to fly to his adopted family which appears to have abandoned him. Most alarming of all, a bull terrier chasing the pig if only to exercise his territorial eminence is trapped by his chain and falls over a bridge into a body of water where he is helplessly suspended upside- down, thrashing about, head fully submerged. Director Miller could have gained sentimental points by tenderly showing one crippled dog whose owner had the sensitivity to hook him up to a pair of wheels rather than put him to sleep. Instead the poor little mutt is dragged by a van going 50 miles an hour, is unable to disentangle himself, and flips over helplessly.
The principal reason to see the film is the imaginative views which unfold of large, clean cities--presumably New York, L.A. and Sydney among them--visions that conjure up recollections of similarly ingenious images in Alex Proyas's "Dark City" and even Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." The voices of the animals are also on the money, especially the tender, female voice of the title character, whose vocabulary is formed by E.G. Daily. Roscoe Lee Browne is exceptionally warm and fuzzy, delivering the smooth, orotund tones of its narrator. (In a display of Hollywood chutzpah, Christine Cavanaugh, who did Babe's voice in the original film, demanded more money than she received the first time around, perhaps believing she could not be replaced. If I were not a union man, I would have offered my services for nothing.)
"Babe: Pig in the City" almost did not open at its scheduled November 25 premiere and in fact was screened for critics only two days in advance. The official excuse was that the editing was taking longer than expected. Actually, the completed movie went back to the cutting room because of thumbs-down reactions from preview audiences that got spooked from its inhumanity. What emerged could make you think that the editor went for a cappuccino break rather than do the necessary cutting.
Rated G. Running Time: 96 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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