“That’ll do pig. That’ll do.”
No movie conveys the feeling of pure joy, of fantasy movie magic, as simply and effectively as Babe. The film opens with a whimsical credits sequence full of art that seems to have been taken off Amelie’s walls. The fairy tale begins and while we watch beautiful images of sunless pens, the narrator speaks in very civil tones about pigs growing large and fat so they can be taken to “pig paradise, a place so wonderful that no pig had ever thought to come back.” A mother is prodded along, while her children resume feeding off a mechanical device that lowers into the pen. One lone pig looks out through the barbed wire and says… “Good-bye, Mom.”
What follows is 90 minutes of perfectly joyful storytelling, with some great lessons about tolerance and kindness. It’s a perfect family film, made even better by the fact you don’t feel it shying away from the dark aspects of the material. Namely the constant threat of death. Like the description of Pig Paradise, the narrator speaks politely about the dangers. There’s even a moment where Babe’s life is in danger from his beloved owner, Farmer Hoggitt. As the farmer holds his shotgun, the narration tells us, “The pig had a vague memory that shiny tubes produced food, and guessed that some quite unexpected surprise would come out of two small round mouths.”
The project was crafted by George Miller, who designed the look of the film and sat on the project for years until he felt effects technology was ready. The day-to-day work went to Chris Noonan, which lead to a brief fight over credit for the film. This was done similar to George Lucas’ work on Star Wars V & VI or The Wachoeskis on V For Vendetta. The film had 56 Animal Trainers and took six months to film.
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