Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
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61% of critics liked it
(59 reviews) -
44% of users liked it
(63,267 ratings)
The 1995 Academy award-winning film Babe was Australian-made and featured the latest in talking animal anima-tronics. It told the heart-warming story of a sheepherding pig named Babe and his rise to community fame. The film was a tremendous hit, both financially and critically. Babe: Pig in the City… More The 1995 Academy award-winning film Babe was Australian-made and featured the latest in talking animal anima-tronics. It told the heart-warming story of a sheepherding pig named Babe and his rise to community fame. The film was a tremendous hit, both financially and critically. Babe: Pig in the City is the higher budgeted American-made sequel that picks up where the original left off. It was directed by George Miller (Mad Max trilogy) who produced the original Babe film, and received a lot of criticism for being much darker than the original. The story owes more to George Orwell's Animal Farm or Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist than the original film. Having triumphed at the National Sheepdog trials, Babe returns home a hero. But after farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) suffers from a farming accident, Mrs. Hoggett, a naive portly woman, is left to work the ranch alone. It's not long before the bank comes knocking. Desperate to save her farm from foreclosure, she accepts an offer for Babe to perform his sheepherding abilities at an overseas state fair. Babe, Mrs. Hoggett, Ferdinand the duck, and the singing mice travel across the ocean to a surreal metropolis, where they suddenly become stranded and separated. Soon Babe is performing with circus apes, being chased by wild strays (sounding a lot like Marlon Brando in The Godfather), and making a new wheelchair-bound canine friend (voiced by Adam Goldberg). He also is anointed leader of the animal community. What Babe lacks in street smarts he makes up for in honest goodness as he teaches audiences yet again that "an unprejudiced heart can mend a broken world." ~ Arthur Borman, Rovi
- Directed By
- George Miller
- Written By
- Dick-King Smith, George Miller, Judy Morris, Mark Lamprell
- Genres
- Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Nov 25, 1998 Wide
- Studio
- Universal Studios
Critic Reviews
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Pat Graham, Chicago Reader
It's George Miller's masterpiece, maybe even the best commercial film of 1998.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
More magical than the original!
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Rob Humanick, Slant Magazine
Carries its predecessor's torch into darker, quixotic territories, bursting at the seams with folkloric witticism and hellzapoppin' imagery.
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Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Darker than the original, not for very young kids.
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Jeffrey Overstreet, Looking Closer
This is the stuff of Dickens, told on the scale of Blade Runner and Brazil, with the madcap spirit of The Great Muppet Caper.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Magda Szubanski
as Esme Hoggett
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James Cromwell
as Arthur Hoggett
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Mary Stein
as Landlady
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Mickey Rooney
as Fugly Floom
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Julie Godfrey
as Neighbor
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Elizabeth Daily
as Babe
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Danny Mann
as Ferdinand
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Glenne Headly
as Zootie
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Steven Wright
as Bob
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James Cosmo
as Thelonius
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Myles Jeffrey
as Easy
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Nathan Kress
as Easy
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Stanley Ralph Ross
as Doberman, Pitbull
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Russi Taylor
as Pink Poodle
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Adam Goldberg
as Flealick
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Roscoe Lee Browne
as Narrator



