Babe: Pig in the City

Babe: Pig in the City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Miller
Written by	George Miller Judy Morris Mark Lamprell
Based on	Characters by Dick King-Smith
Produced by	Doug Mitchell George Miller Bill Miller
Starring	Magda Szubanski James Cromwell Mickey Rooney
Narrated by	Roscoe Lee Browne
Cinematography	Andrew Lesnie
Edited by	Jay Friedkin Margaret Sixel
Music by	Nigel Westlake
Production company	Kennedy Miller Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	25 November 1998 (1998-11-25)
Running time	96 minutes
Countries	Australia United States
Language	English
Budget	$90 million
Box office	$69.1 million

Babe: Pig in the City is a 1998 comedy-drama adventure film. It is the sequel/epilogue to the 1995 film Babe and the second and final chapter of the Babe film series. It is co-written, produced and directed by George Miller, who co-wrote and produced the original film. Most of the actors from the first film reprised their respective roles, including James Cromwell, Miriam Margolyes, Hugo Weaving, Danny Mann, Roscoe Lee Browne and Magda Szubanski. Glenne Headly, Steven Wright, James Cosmo, Myles Jeffrey, and Mickey Rooney also feature. However, most of them have only brief appearances, as the story focuses on the journey of Babe (now voiced by Elizabeth Daily in place of Christine Cavanaugh).

The film was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1998 Academy Awards. The film was neither critically nor commercially as successful as its predecessor, grossing only $69.5 million on a $90 million budget and receiving mixed reviews.

Plot

A few weeks after the events of the first film, Babe inadvertently causes an accident while attempting to help Farmer Hoggett repair the pump for the farm's well. Arthur sustains severe injuries and his wife Esme is tasked with tending the farm alone. Shortly afterward, bank representatives arrive to inform the Hoggetts they will be evicted at the end of the month unless they can pay their mortgage off. Then Esme finds a flyer for a faraway fair hosting a sheepdog herding contest which promises enough prize money to save the farm and they set off to go there together.

At the city of Metropolis' airport, an overzealous sniffer beagle named Snoop falsely signals that Babe and Esme are carrying illegal substances. Airport security officers interrogate Esme, causing her to miss their connecting flight. Failing to secure accommodation that allows animals in an unfamiliar city, Esme is approached by an airport janitor who refers them to a suitable hotel. When Esme arrives there, she is turned away but is intercepted at the back entrance by the landlady, who loves animals and provides them with a refuge, much to the chagrin of her neighbours.

While Esme leaves to make a long-distance call home, Babe chases a Panamanian white-faced capuchin named Tug who steals Esme's suitcase. Following him into a hotel room, Babe meets a trio of chimpanzees—Bob, his wife Zootie and his little brother Easy—and Thelonius, a civilized Bornean orangutan who is a butler for the landlady's elderly uncle, Fugly. His plan is to make Babe part of the clown act he performs with his apes at the children's ward of the local hospital. Babe initially refuses, but accepts when the apes insinuate that he will be paid—funds he could use to save the farm. When Esme returns, Fugly leads her to think Babe escaped into the city. During her search for Babe, Esme is arrested after an incident involving police officers and other bystanders caused by a gang of hooligan bikers attempting to mug her. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Fugly performs his act, which goes awry when Babe accidentally causes Fugly to set the stage curtains ablaze.

The next morning, Fugly is taken to the hospital in a food coma, accompanied by his niece. Left to fend for themselves, the hotel's animal occupants soon become hungry and the chimps decide to steal food from a store, using Babe to distract a pair of guard dogs. When the dogs chase Babe around the neighborhood, he falls into a canal. He returns to save one of the dogs from drowning, who gratefully pledges to be Babe's bodyguard; Babe then invites all the stray cats and dogs to the hotel. Babe and the guard dog share the pilfered jellybeans the chimps stole with all the animals as Zootie later goes into labor and gives birth to twins. Babe then joins the animals together in singing "If I Had Words", which is overheard by his duck friend, Ferdinand, who left the farm to save it as well.

The celebration is interrupted when several unfriendly animal control officers are falsely alerted to the violation by the Flooms' neighbor, Hortense, who dislikes animals. Most of the animals are removed except for Babe, Tug, Ferdinand and a disabled Jack Russell terrier named Flealick. The next day, Esme is released from custody after explaining her predicament to the judge. That night, Babe, Tug, Ferdinand, and Flealick infiltrate the animal control facility and rescue their wrongfully imprisoned friends. Esme later returns to the hotel to find it in disarray and the landlady mourning her uncle and the animals' capture. After confronting Hortense since she is the one responsible, they set out to find them.

The duo track the animals to a charity dinner in the hospital's ballroom and retrieve them all. The landlady then sells the hotel, which becomes a loud nightclub, and gives the proceeds to Esme to save the farm. The landlady and the animals come to stay at the farm, where Esme resumes her duties and Arthur recovers, and after finally fixing the farm's water pump, proudly smiles at Babe and says, "That'll do, Pig. That'll do."

Cast

• E. G. Daily as Babe, a pig.
• Magda Szubanski as Esme Cordelia Hoggett, Arthur's wife.
• Steven Wright as Bob, one of the Flooms' chimpanzees who is Zootie's husband and Easy's older brother.
• Mickey Rooney as Fugly Floom, Miss Floom's late uncle.
• Glenne Headly as Zootie, one of the Flooms' chimpanzees who is Bob's wife and Easy's sister-in-law.
• Myles Jeffrey as Easy, one of the Flooms' chimpanzees who is Bob's younger brother and Zootie's brother-in-law.
• James Cosmo as Thelonius, a civilized Bornean orangutan who is a servant to Fugly, and later to Arthur and Esme at the end of the film.
• Eddie Barth as Nigel, a Bulldog residing in the hotel.
  • Eddie Barth also voices Alan, a Neapolitan Mastiff residing in the hotel.
• Adam Goldberg as Flealick, a disabled and talkative Jack Russell terrier.
• Danny Mann as Ferdinand, a Indian Runner duck.
  • Mann also voices Tug, the Flooms' Panamanian white-faced capuchin
• Mary Stein as Miss Floom, the hotel's landlady and Fugly's niece.
• Stanley Ralph Ross as a Bull Terrier and Doberman Pinscher guard dog duo.
• James Cromwell as Arthur Hoggett, Esme's husband.
• Roscoe Lee Browne as the narrator
• Julie Godfrey as Hortense, the Flooms' neighbor.
• Russi Taylor as a poodle that lives on the streets.
  • Russi Taylor also voices a choir cat
• Bill Capizzi as Snoop, an overzealous beagle who works at the airport as a security sniffer.
• Miriam Margolyes as Fly, a Border Collie who is Rex's wife and Babe's adoptive mother.
• Hugo Weaving as Rex, a Border Collie who is the farm's lead sheepdog, Babe's adoptive father, and Fly's husband.
• Jim Cummings as a pelican
• Katie Leigh as a kitten
• Evelyn Krape as one of the farm's sheep
  • Evelyn Krape also voices some alley cats
• Charles Bartlett as a cow
• Michael Edward-Stevens as a horse
• Nathan Kress as a puppy that lives on the streets.
• Paul Livingston as a chef at the charity event
• Kim Story as the judge
• John Upton as a boy at the hospital

The fish are voiced by Al Mancini and Larry Moss.

Additional character voices were provided by Lisa Bailey, Balyne Barbosa, Victor Brandt, Jeannie Elias, Pippa Grandison, J. D. Hall, Mark Hammond, Barbara Harris, Wendy Kamenoff, Scott Leavenworthy, Julie Oppenheimer, Deborah Packer, Roger Rose, Carly Schroeder, Joseph Sicari, Aaron Spann, Drew Lexi Thomas, and Naomi Watts.

Production

Christine Cavanaugh, who played Babe in the first film, was approached to reprise her role, but declined when contract negotiations fell through. Cavanaugh was eventually replaced by her Rugrats co-star E. G. Daily. The director of the successful first movie, Chris Noonan, was also missing from Babe: Pig in the City, with directorial duties handled by George Miller (Noonan was reportedly not even invited to the premiere Australian screening).

Prior to the film's theatrical release, it was originally rated PG by the MPAA. The TV spots for the film's theatrical release mentioned this rating, as did a promotional poster. By the time the film was released in theaters it had been re-rated as G due to the film being re-edited and submitted again for review.

Babe: Pig in the City takes place in an imaginative, fantasy-like metropolis. The aesthetic is notably reminiscent of Oz. The city has numerous styles of architecture from around the world. It also has a variety of waterways, noticeable by the hotel at which Babe stays. The downtown area appears to be situated on an island not dissimilar to Manhattan Island. The Downtown Skyline features numerous landmarks such as the World Trade Center, the Sears Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the IDS Center, the MetLife Building, the Sydney Opera House, the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Fernsehturm Berlin, Big Ben, St. Basil's Cathedral of Moscow's Red Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Christ the Redeemer statue, among others.

The DVD covers feature a similar but different city of San Francisco.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has 65% approval rating based on 65 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.24/10. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A+ to F. On Metacritic the film carries a score of 68, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

On release the film received poor reviews by most critics, receiving the lowest marks; most believed the sequel had lost the innocence of the original. Empire's Andrew Collins said, "Where Babe brought deep-rooted joy, the sequel brings fidgety depression" and awarded the film one star. Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "It will work as a sequel only hard-core Babe fans willing to follow this four-legged hero (or heroine, as Babe obviously is in some scenes) anywhere. Had Pig in the City been made first, it by no means could have prompted a sequel of its own." American film critic Gene Siskel, on the other hand, named it as his choice for the best movie of 1998 over more adult-oriented films like Saving Private Ryan, Life Is Beautiful and Shakespeare in Love. Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and said it was "more magical than the original Babe."

In the decades since Babe: Pig in the City's release, the movie has developed a cult following. Tom Waits expressed appreciation for the film during a 2010 interview with Mojo Magazine. Radio personality/podcaster Jesse Thorn has also praised the film.

Awards

Peter Gabriel's "That'll Do", written and composed by Randy Newman, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 71st Academy Awards.

Soundtrack

The musical score for Babe: Pig in the City was composed by Nigel Westlake, who previously wrote the music for Babe. A soundtrack album was released on 24 November 1998 by Geffen Records featuring Westlake's score, music inspired to the movie...as well as sound clips taken from film. The soundtrack also includes source music such as "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and "That's Amore" by Dean Martin. Additional tracks include the Academy Award-nominated theme song "That'll Do" and a song sung by Elizabeth Daily, the voice of Babe.

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"That'll Do"	Peter Gabriel Featuring Paddy Maloney* And The Black Dyke Band	3:53
2.	"Babe: A Pig In The City"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	1:22
3.	"The Returning Hero"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	1:16
4.	"Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien"	Edith Piaf	2:19
5.	"Chattanooga Choo-Choo"	Glenn Miller & His Orchestra* With Tex Beneke & The Modernaires With Unknown Artist	3:14
6.	"Scram, This Is Not A Farm!"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	2:27
7.	"That's Amore"	Dean Martin	3:07
8.	"Three Blind Mice"	Unknown Artist	0:42
9.	"A Pig Gets Wise"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	1:17
10.	"Are You Lonesome Tonight"	The Mavericks	3:00
11.	"Protected By Angels"	The Chieftains Featuring The Black Dyke Mills Band	3:39
12.	"The Big City (Two Step Nadya)"	The Terem Quartet*	3:12
13.	"Babe's Lament"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	2:38
14.	"A Heart That's True"	E.G. Daily	4:00
15.	"The End"	Melbourne Symphony Orchestra	1:26
16.	"That'll Do (Instrumental)"	James Watson And The Black Dyke Mills Band	4:00

Home media

The film was released on VHS, DVD (in both widescreen and pan and scan formats), and laserdisc on 4 May 1999. On 22 May 2001, the film was released on DVD as a 2-pack with the original Babe. On September 23, 2003, it was re-released on DVD as part of "The Complete Adventure Two-Movie Pig Pack" in its separate widescreen and pan and scan formats. On November 12, 2004, it was re-released onto DVD as part of a Family Double Feature, which includes Babe with the widescreen and the pan and scan versions of the film. On May 7, 2013, it was released on Blu-ray for the 15th Anniversary Edition of the film's release and re-released on Blu-ray by Fabulous Films Limited in UK on June 17, 2017.

Video game

In 2006, a universally-panned video game based on the film was released on PlayStation 2.

External links

• Babe: Pig in the City at AllMovie
• Babe: Pig in the City at IMDb
• Babe: Pig in the City at Box Office Mojo
• Babe: Pig in the City at Rotten Tomatoes
• Babe: Pig in the City at Ozmovies