Plot
Babe, a pig raised by sheepdogs, learns to herd sheep with a little help from Farmer Hoggett.
Release Year: 1995
Rating: 7.1/10 (48,781 voted)
Critic's Score: 83/100
Director:
Chris Noonan
Stars: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh
Storyline Farmer Hoggett wins a runt piglet at a local fair and young Babe, as the piglet decides to call himself, befriends and learns about all the other creatures on the farm. He becomes special friends with one of the sheepdogs, Fly. With Fly's help, and Farmer Hoggett's intuition, Babe embarks on a career in sheepherding with some surprising and spectacular results.
Writers: Dick King-Smith, George Miller
Cast: Christine Cavanaugh
-
Babe
(voice)
Miriam Margolyes
-
Fly
(voice)
Danny Mann
-
Ferdinand
(voice)
Hugo Weaving
-
Rex
(voice)
Miriam Flynn
-
Maa
(voice)
Russi Taylor
-
Duchess the Cat
(voice)
(as Russie Taylor)
Evelyn Krape
-
Old Ewe
(voice)
Michael Edward-Stevens
-
Horse
(voice)
Charles Bartlett
-
Cow
(voice)
Paul Livingston
-
Rooster
(voice)
Roscoe Lee Browne
-
Narrator
(voice)
James Cromwell
-
Farmer Arthur H. Hoggett
Magda Szubanski
-
Esme Hoggett
Zoe Burton
-
The Hoggetts' daughter
Paul Goddard
-
The Hoggetts' son-in-Law
Filming Locations: Illawarra Highway, Albion Park, New South Wales, Australia
Box Office Details
Budget: $30,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $8,742,545
(USA)
(6 August 1995)
(1591 Screens)
Gross: $240,700,000
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The talking pig is a combination of 48 real Yorkshire pigs plus an animatronic double. A makeup artist added toupee and eyelashes to each, and computer digitization manipulated pictures of the snout to make the pig appear to talk.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
The competition clock at the sheep dog trials has no minute hand.
Quotes: Maa the Very Old Ewe:
Darn silly carry-on, if you ask me. Horse:
The cat says they call it Christmas Ferdinand the duck:
Christmas! Christmas dinner, yeah. Dinner means death. Death means carnage! Christmas means carnage!
[flies away frantically]
Ferdinand the duck:
Christmas means carnage!
User Review
An astounding film
Rating:
I was dragged to this film by my girlfriend (now wife) when it first came
out in fall of 1995. I had zero interest in what seemed to me nothing
more
than a kids movie. I recall sitting in the theater before the movie
commenced, looking at my watch and estimating the time it would end, when
my
life could begin again after this rude 90 minute interruption.
Then the film began. The moment Babe said a tearful goodbye to his mother
as
she was being led off to the slaughter house ("Pig Paradise", the
narrator
says), I was hooked. What stood out to me was not the tearful "Goodbye
Mom",
but the fact that after we see Babe's mom loaded into the truck, the
camera
goes back to Babe, siting in the corner of his industrial pen, sobbing
profusely. This moment, maybe 90 seconds into the movie, is filmed so
well,
so perfect, that instead of coming off as melodramatic, it is
heartrending.
I know that word is used often to describe this film, but I do not know
how
else to describe it. This is one of many "heartrending" moments in this
beautiful film.
This is by far the best childrens film I have ever seen, but it really is
a
mistake to even call it a childrens film. It is simply a great film. A
film
that shows how wondrous things can happen as a result of common decency;
how
any individual can triumph if they believe in themselves; how vital is
the
help of family and friends in life's arduous journey.
This a film not to be missed.
It should have beaten Braveheart.
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