# Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

### reviewed by
Walter Frith

    'Babe: Pig in the City' (1998)

    A movie review by Walter Frith

    Member of the 'Online Film Critics Society'
    http://ofcs.org/ofcs/

Who was the most annoying character in 1995's 'Babe'? Farmer Arthur Hoggett's wife, of course, as portrayed by Magda Szubanski. Just our luck that she is the main human character in this sequel to the Oscar nominated film and this movie is protracted, dark, idiotic and lame brained. What made 'Babe' such a big hit in 1995 is that the computerized special effects (which won as Oscar), made the animals seem like they were REALLY talking! I'm glad this film is failing at the box office because money was the only motivation behind this mess of a movie that will make you despise monkeys, loathe hotels and never desire to see Mickey Rooney in another movie. He is a true screen legend and I can't figure out why he would degrade himself in a film like this in a part that is clearly intended for a no name actor staggering off of the unemployment line. The film has no script, mechanized direction and screeching slapstick that falls flat on its face.

Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) is injured in an accident on the farm and Babe and Mrs. Hoggett make a trip to the big city because Babe is in demand right now for making guest appearances all over the world since he won the sheep herding contest at the end of the last film. The reason for the trip is that it will mean a big pay day for the Hoggett's and the money will save their farm from its creditors. James Cromwell appears for about five minutes at the beginning of the sequel and five minutes at the end. Since he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for the first film, I would say this is a big let down for the audience.

Upon arriving in "the city", it is a combination of all the cities in the world as things devised by computer for the film as seen from the hotel window view are the Eifel tower in Paris, the Statue of Liberty in New York City, the HOLLYWOOD sign in California and the CN tower in Toronto Canada.

Mrs. Hoggett meets the Olive Oyl type landlady of the hotel (Mary Stein) who is also an annoying character. Babe has a run in with a troupe of monkeys who live in the hotel with a seemingly drunken circus clown (Mickey Rooney) who doesn't utter a word for the two minutes or so that he's seen on screen. The monkeys are mean spirited and they hold Babe against his will for an appearance in their circus and children may find this a bit frightening as the whole circus routine is done in extremely bad taste ending in a fire at a children's hospital???!!!

Babe befriends a bull terrier, meets other oddities from the animal world and the film goes around and around in circles without a real pay off and anyone above the age of 4 who enjoys this film is in serious trouble. This film tries to be different from the first movie but in its attempt, it is disorganized, clumsy, and has no charm at all.

The film's climax has too many humans in it and the human characters as a whole are given too much screen time in this one and while Babe remains a cute and likable character, the only redeeming quality this film has is the rascally duck from the first film and the message that a lot of animals are indeed more likable than a lot of people. Big deal. We already know that!

    OUT OF 5 > *

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    wfrith@cgocable.net

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