Babe: Pig in the City
(imagine the voice-over)
Alas, although Babe was an Oscar nominated film, filled with charm and technical brilliance, and although the production team this time around clearly churned out the most difficult of movies to make in the world, Babe was no longer the unsullied perfect memory in any of our minds. Babe 2 takes up right where the first ended.
(the mouse chorus) “A Disappointing Nightmare”
Babe 2 is beautifully lit, an engineering feat of amazingness, shot on truly spectacular sets, and it is NOT for children. Nor is it for adults. It is like a terrible nightmare, a disappointing nightmare, where Babe and his charm get whisked off to a horrible world where dogs are thrown from cars, the Boss is seemingly killed (but only gravely injured), animals are starving and hunted by animal control, goldfish and dogs alike nearly die for dearth or excess of water, sweet old women are strip searched and abandoned, and animals lie to other good hearted animals to hitch a free ride. A world-weary poodle waxes on more bitterly than a 50 year old $5 prostitute.
(mouse chorus again) “Too Much Coke In The Boardroom”
Next thing you know they will clamor for a sequel to Titanic. Babe is a cute pig, very toy-friendly, very sweet. It made a zillion dollars by live-action children’s film standards and was critically acclaimed to boot. No self-respecting businessman wouldn’t *consider* the idea of a sequel. But before word 24 of that 25 word pitch, someone should have said No. Twitching, crippled dogs that the dog catcher wouldn’t even take coming to life after being set upright? A lot of children are going to be weeping, propping up their dogs after they find their car-crushed bodies in the street. Why? Why did so many terrible things have to happen to everyone? The charm implicit with Babe’s reaction to the real world is crushed underfoot like a goldfish when you have such insurmountable wickedness and still try to win. Then there is the odd family of chimps. Are they good? Bad? Stupid? Devious? We are set up to mistrust them and then expected to side with them. Mickey Rooney stars as your own private nightmare after his chimps steal the Boss’ wife’s last possession and he locks Babe in a trunk. And why would the Boss say “that’ll do, pig,” again, if not only because someone HAD to have that in there?
“What beautiful sets!”
As if to make up for the script’s dreadful (and low-Babe) content, the production design department really outdid themselves. The city that is no city and all cities, the people existing in a no-time world “just to the left of the 20th century” where you see circle skirts and spectator shoes and navel rings and frumpy dresses all in the same frame. The Hotel, the one you see in the preview at the intersection of 2 river-streets, the lush look of the final scene in the ballroom, oh my heavens. It’s gorgeous. The cavernous, cold airport, the bustling black leather city, the rich woody balconies of the Hotel. Man oh man. It’s a shame that this part of the film is so excellent.
“Woe is me, Woe are we”
I only say catch it on HBO for the sets and the unspeakable amount of work these people did. It makes me very sad that it is so unwatchable.
MPAA Rating G = Should be PG-13
Release date 1998
Time in minutes 97
Director George Miller
Studio Universal Pictures
