1998 sequelRating: 12/20 (Jen: 7/20; Abbey: 20/20; Emma: 17/20)
Plot: For reasons that are never clear to me, Babe and the farmer's wife have to fly to a city following an accident in which the farmer falls into a well. They stay at a hotel filled with monkeys, kitties, and dogs, and various things happen. Babe has to save the day.
What the hell? Parts of this movie look really cool. The imagery of the imaginary city (like a cross between an American city with its skyscrapers and Venice) works to create this otherworldly feel which places this firmly in fairy tale territories. It's all very pretty. I also like the special effects and animal training that went into bringing these characters to life. Most of the voice work was good (Stephen Wright was a monkey) while a few of the new characters were interesting, probably more interesting than the ones in the first movie which, excluding a couple few, aren't in this much at all. But I had an extremely difficult time following the plot of this thing. More specifically, I had a tough time figuring out why this particular weirdo plot was chosen as a sequel to the much-simpler and sweeter story in the first movie. During the last of what seemed like forty-seven climaxes, I kept thinking about the quiet beauty of the climactic scene in the first movie. It's stunning how different this one is from its predecessor. So while I really did enjoy seeing a lot of what I saw, most of this just didn't sit well. No wonder there wasn't a third one of these. The only logical next-step would be to put Babe in some sort of Dante-esque or Boschian afterlife, and that would be more troubling than seeing the near-drowning of a cute little dog.
Actually, I'm starting the petition. Sign below if you would buy a ticket for Babe: Pig in Hell.
Exactly. As a stand-alone movie I would probably give this a 14. As a very mean-spirited follow-up to one of the gentlest and wonderfully made film fables, I would like to give it a 5.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble starts right away when you realize that James Cromwell is off making "L.A. Confidential" or something (good move, James). I didn't really care for seeing the fat chick for 10 minutes in the first one (except when she was crying). In this, I had to put up with her for an hour. It's all fairly well done, But "Babe: Pig in the City" is meaner than this review. I won't buy a ticket to "Babe: Pig in Hell", but I might buy a ticket to "Makin' Bacon with Babe" if it has James Cromwell in it, instead of this woman.