Babe: Pig in the City: You Can't Make This Stuff Up

This duck/goose is always in a power stance throughout the film, it's incredible. Can you feel the threat radiating off of him? 

Babe: Pig in the City is the 1998 sequel to 1995's Babe, about a piglet with a heart of gold, and suffice to say, it is even more surreal than the premise would imply.  Directed by George Miller for some reason, it's an odyssey in surrealism.  My road towards watching this film was paved with urgent pleas for me to see this film "about the soul of America, a tale of two cities" from my brother and our aunt.  After half a year of badgering, I finally consented to seeing it, and boy was it weird, and I didn't really find much enjoyment in it.  In short, Babe: Pig in the City is nothing short of a surreal fever dream filled (literally) to the brim with heart, despair, talking animals, and a duck(goose?) in a power stance.

Really all you need to know about the film's plot comes from the title.  It continues the tale of how Babe the pig, after winning the county sheepherding competition in the previous film, finds himself lost and alone in The City.  Yes, that's the name of the city, The City.  It's interesting due to its nature as a literal hodgepodge of every city on earth where the planes fly just above the urban rooftops.  The City is just one of the surreal locations in the film, after Babe leaves the farm nothing looks normal.  Dahl-like is a good term for it, and this too extends to the characters (animals and humans alike), which while cartoonish and shallow, still have a degree of charm.  The problem however lies in the film's tone, which changes so quickly that it's impossible for any emotion to sink in before an opposing one replaces it.  There was this scene where Babe rescues this bull terrier from drowning after the latter spent five minutes trying to kill him.  It's a touching scene, and as the other animals see it, they praise Babe for his good heart and kindness.  Not ten seconds into this moment however, all the animals then begin this melancholy shared recollection of being abused, abandoned, and cast out.  What am I supposed to feel here?  Hell, this is just the first of many strange tonal shifts throughout the film, and it's frustrating how overboard it is, because besides this there's really nothing wrong with the film's plot.  It's otherwise a charming (if a bit bleak) Dahl-crossed-with-Dickens story about a good-natured pig, literally the definition of inoffensive if a tad bizarre.

In terms of technical execution, Pig in the City isn't particularly flashy, but it's definitely interesting.  The amount of skill put into the animatronics that make up most of the animals in this film is nothing short of incredible.  I honestly thought they were real, and especially for a film from 1998 that's quite an achievement.  This is not to denigrate the performances by actual animals, which were likewise very well executed.  I've already mentioned the tonal issues of the film, and the editing plays a role in it, but otherwise it's decent.  The costuming is strange in places however, and there's this scene of the city center where almost everybody is walking around in a bathing suit.  Paired with the bikers, man-on-stilts, police officers, and adorable wife of The Farmer that also compose the scene, it's a bizarre scene.  The most notable thing about this film for me technically was the sets, which while obviously sets (they look pretty close to those backdrops at amusement parks or stage plays) showed a remarkable amount of creativity in the composition of them.  The City is unmistakably a combination of every city on earth, and the sets sell that premise with gusto.  I did not expect to see imaginative sets and amazing animatronics in this fever dream, but here were are, and to be honest they go a long way towards furthering the surreal feel of the film.

If you wanted a movie to make you feel like you were in the middle of one hell of a dream, Babe: Pig in the City is a good one for that. It's not really my cup of tea, but I could still find a good deal to appreciate about it despite questioning my sanity throughout.  Despite the innocent look, it might be a bit dark for young kids (I guess its target audience), but we're just talking about the very uncertain feeling throughout, so I guess it's topical.  I'll give it a recommendation for the unique premise and noteworthy techniques in the production, but I'm not exactly going to suggest putting it on at a gathering.

Next up it's The Darkness 2, because the first is on console only and the best way to follow up a children's film is apparently one of the more violent games I've ever played.