Babe, Blu-ray (1995/2011)
Starring: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh
Based on children’s book by: Dick King-Smith
Producer: George Miller
Studio: Universal 61115347 [4/5/11]
Video: 1.85:1 for 16:9 1080p HD color
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio, DTS 5.1, DD 2.0
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Extras: “The Making of Babe;” Commentary track by Writer/Producer George Miller; George Miller on Babe
Length: 1 hour 32 minutes
Rating: *****
I recall as a child seeing the series of shorts run before feature films (back when they did that) titled ‘Speaking of the Animals.” Even at a young age we realized the animals on the screen weren’t really speaking – the animation of their mouth movements was pretty primitive. Well, nowadays with CGI processes that’s all changed and the immense amount of detailed work that went into this film is clearly seen on the screen, and explained a bit in the short "Making of…" documentary. I had forgotten since 1995 – when Babe was nominated for six Academy Awards – that the animals talked in this movie. It did win an Oscar for its ingenious visual effects, which it fully deserved. It makes for an absolutely delightful family film that not only doesn’t have silly human characters but also teaches some laudable lessons for the kids (such as not eating pigs!). The filmmakers had to use nearly 30 pigs to play Babe because they fatten up so fast.
The title character is a cute little pink pig won by Australian farmer Hoggett (get it?) when he successfully guessed its weight at a fair. The lonesome pig is adopted by the farmer’s border collie and raised as a puppy. He is lured into crime of sorts by a duck who seems to think he’s a rooster, and comes up against the scheming and dangerous house cat. After coming close to killing the pig for Christmas dinner, Farmer Hoggett senses that he and the pig have a common destiny and eventually Babe saves the day by performing as a champion “sheep-pig” – after some training assistance from the collie and her sheepdog mate, as well as from the sheep themselves. All the various animals play off well against one another. Their voices are evidently not provided by celebrities, but all are most appropriate for the characters.
The three tiny singing mice that appear in many of the chapter titles and on-screen a few places, are one of several animatronic characters created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. At first they may seem over-the-top corny, but they grow on you and eventually crack you up – especially when in a night scene they sing “Blue Moon.” The clever moving wall decorations during the opening titles are also from this source.
The Blu-ray transfer is superb, and you may want to stay for the entire rolling credits at the end to see all the familiar classical selections so well-used used on the soundtrack – including Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and his Organ Symphony. And so we say G’Day to Babe.
— John Sunier
