My GREAT SELECTION is a small gem that is adapted from the book by Dick King-Smith's novel, The Sheep-Pig or Babe: The Gallant Pig. I have read the book back when I was in lower school and most of the novel was like the movie so I pictured most scenes in my mind as to how the animals communicated with each other on the farm. From the farmer's perspective, it is animal noise. I believe that this was the first time that such special effects were used to capture live-action animals talking and solidifies mainly the start of "magical" special effects that can be used on animals to support the main plot.
When watching this movie again and it has been a while, this is a very good story and mainly, relationship between a man and his "pig". I was impressed by the special effects and art direction that surround the Hoggett farm. When reading how the movie was made, the filmmakers used animatronic pigs and border collies for most of the shots regarding no dialogue. Based on the narration that takes place throughout the movie, he uses some points and some phrases that navigate throughout the story supporting the animals' fate and the characters.
Babe (voiced by the late Christine Cavanaugh) is an orphaned piglet or a runt that witnesses his mother taken away to "Pig Paradise", meaning it is a place that the big pigs or Mother Pigs are not guaranteed to return to the stables, a place that no pig wants to go through. (Think about it.) Babe is selected for a "guess the weight" contest at a county fair and the winning farmer, Arthur Hoggett (James Cromwell) brings him home and allows him to stay with a Border Collie named Fly, her mate, Rex, and her puppies in a barn.
After a mishap with Ferdinand, the duck, trying to steal an alarm clock from the Hoggett's house, because he poses as a rooster to wake everybody up, Rex sternly instructs Babe to stay away from Ferdinand, who is now a fugitive. After Fly's puppies are sold, in a heartwarming moment, Babe asks Fly if he could call her "Mom". She accepts. Babe is almost chosen for Christmas dinner because Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) feeds him a lot. However, when Farmer Hoggett observes Babe separating the brown hens from the white hens, he is impressed and takes him to the fields to herd the sheep. Encouraged by Maa's words, a sheep, Babe escorts the sheep out of the stables. Rex takes it an insult and gets angry. Also, Farmer Hoggett thinks about enrolling Babe in a sheep-dog contest.
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| That'll do, Pig. |
This movie is a light, G-rated movie that does not push the envelope for additional storytelling, humor or characters. I feel like that this is one of the most balanced family movies for sure because every scene or sequence is like another page in a book because you are invested with both the story and its characters. There are two stories in this film that are quite satisfying: one is the relationship between the pig and the farmer and the other is that Babe wants to be a sheepdog. I can see that people find the latter to be inspiring as it translates that an underdog can want to do something and accomplish it even if people tell that person that they cannot do it or it is impossible for them. I do not know if he achieves the impossible but in his way, Babe's communication with the sheep works.
There is a dark sequence in the movie that could have changed the whole story and it is a sequence regarding feral dogs attacking sheep and killing one of Farmer Hoggett's sheep. After thinking that Babe killed one of his sheep, Mr. Hoggett makes the ultimate choice of killing Babe. When Esme, his wife, tells Mr. Hoggett that the dogs were killing sheep in other farms, he unloads his shotgun and puts his rifle away. Whew, and come to think of that sequence, you think that he will not have a sequel, which may be another one you should check out too. The animal and human conditions cannot be simultaneously meshed together, as pointed out in that scene, because questions surround what happen from Hoggett's point of view initially. It's solely based on his instincts.
James Cromwell gives mostly a silent performance as he has minimal dialogue throughout the whole movie as the animals take over the picture. But, in a very interesting scene, when he performs a jig for Babe to raise his spirits after he found the truth that humans eat pigs from their pet cat, Duchess, he feels rejuvenated and that restores Babe's affection as he starts eating again. It is an underrated performance to say the least.
I cannot believe that the director of Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller, wrote this screenplay alongside Chris Noonan, the director. Miller is a very talented writer/director and his range is fantastic from hard-core action to a light family film. Both Miller and Noonan had some differences in the production as this movie was developed and made in over 2 years because of special effects technology and it paid off especially how the animals were performing. We observe both the human condition and the animal condition quite well and how they are both established in the different points of view especially towards the end of the film with the sheep-dog contest. I'll admit that the filmmakers try to be so inspiring that the contest itself was predictable but overall, the movie is lighthearted and insightful. It is an underrated family film that initiated a trend of mostly bad live-talking animal films. From that observation, it means it is the story that counts and Babe is a very good one.
Here is a clip:
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