# Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

### reviewed by
Michael Dequina

    _Babe:_Pig_in_the_City_ (G) ** 1/2 (out of ****)

I can understand Universal's desire to make a sequel to its 1995 surprise box office and Oscar sensation. I can understand director George Miller's (who served as producer on the original) desire to have the titular perky porker to grow up a bit. But there's something about this film I cannot understand: did this follow-up to a beloved family film really need to be this dark? (And how the hell did it snag a G rating?)

_Pig_in_the_City_, as its title suggests, brings the sheepherding pig to an unnamed metropolis (inventively designed as an amalgam of New York, Sydney, Paris, San Francisco, among many others) to save the farm after inadvertently causing his beloved master, Arthur Hoggett (James Cromwell) to suffer a crippling accident. As upsetting as the sight of some heavy machinery falling on the gentle farmer is, it's not quite as upsetting as a ridiculously drawn-out scene of a dog's near-drowning, not to mention an already-crippled dog being thrown from a speeding car, his spirit then briefly seen frolicking in a canine heaven. The children in the audience with which I saw the film were audibly upset, as were some parents, and I cannot blame them.

What nearly redeems the film is the enduring charm of the pig, this time voiced by E.G. Daily (taking over for Christine Cavanaugh); the imaginative production design; and the impressive effects work. As in the original, it is impossible to distinguish the real animals from the animatronic ones to the computer animated ones. And as in the original, everything _does_ work out nicely for the pig, who learns a lesson or two about life. But walking out of this _Babe_, I--and I am sure many others--feel that Universal should have left well enough alone, heeding the immortal closing words of Farmer Hoggett in the original (repeated in this film): "That'll do, Pig."

Michael Dequina mrbrown@iname.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CompuServe Hollywood Hotline: http://www.HollywoodHotline.com

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