#5: That'll Do, Pig

(Babe, Chris Noonan, 1995)

We watched this movie unexpectedly. We were just hanging out, and it happened to be just starting on HBO so we decided to watch. We've both seen it before (though not for many years), and it ended up being a great idea. Especially because after it was over we realized that it was on the list. Which is awesome.

And Babe totally deserves to be on the list. You see, the best way to make a great movie for kids is to use adorable, talking animals. And, if there was a competition for cutest talking animal movie, Babe would probably win. I know that Pixar has made some very popular movies featuring talking critters (Ratatouille, Finding Nemo), and though I love those movies, the truth is that animated mice (okay, I know, rats) can't really compete with real mice as far as cuteness goes. And Babe uses real animals, so it wins. And oh, does it win.

Babe tells the story of a young pig who gets raised by Border Collies and in turn wants to become a sheepherder himself. It's a simple premise. Cute pig. Cute dogs. Cute sheep. And the overreaching moral of the story is that if you are polite and ask for things nicely, then people (or sheep) will be much more willing to do what you want. While that is not always the case, it's a really great lesson to be teaching little kids. And Babe is adorable, so they'll listen to him. And it's wonderfully nice. Also wonderfully nice is the relationship that Babe has with Farmer Hoggett. Because Farmer Hoggett might be the nicest man ever. It's just a beautiful example of how powerful a relationship man and beast can have, and yet another reason why the movie is so great for kids.

Now, at the end of the film, unsurprisingly, Babe successfully herds his sheep and wins the herding competition. Babe is happy, everyone cheers, and Farmer Hoggett just looks down at Babe and quietly says one immortal line: "That'll do, pig. That'll do." While we watched it I silently tried (and failed) to hold back tears. When I was young I didn't understand the poignancy of this scene, but now that I'm older (and have lost a pet more significant than a hamster or goldfish) it just pulls at my heart. I didn't want Jack to see me crying over a movie intended for kids, but as I looked over at him he was silently wiping a tear away as well, and suddenly everything was okay.

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I could count on one hand the number of movies that have made me not want to eat bacon. Actually, I really only need one finger, because Babe is the sole film to hold the power to potentially drive me away from that miracle food-stuff. I love the taste of fried pig skin as much as the next guy, but after watching Babe, you don't just want to avoid eating pork; you don't want to eat ANYTHING made from animals (For the record, with my goldfish-esque memory, I still eat bacon).

I distinctly remember seeing Babe in theaters with my parents back when it first came out, and loving the heck out of it. Thinking about it now, it seems odd that it would have had such a hold on me as a kid, especially when you consider how dark it is. His mom dies in the first five minutes, for Pete's sake! Add on to that the threat of animal death at seemingly every turn, some crazy wild dogs and the titular pig almost dying of pneumonia, and you have a "children's" movie that is reaching the echelons of Up for tragedy.

Fortunately, Babe doesn't stand out because it's the most depressing movie about animals ever made. Instead, the movie is cute, funny, a little scary and ultimately, mind-blowingly uplifting. A large part of this is due to James Cromwell's outstanding performance as Farmer Hoggett. He only has 171 words of dialogue, and 61 of them are sung, yet his presence is so commanding that it garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He keeps his emotions close to the chest for most of the movie, which makes the Act III bursts of passion all the more moving. Plus, he gets to utter one of the best lines of dialogue in all of film: "That'll do, pig."

Aside from that, there's not much else to be said about Babe. All the animals' lip movements were done by the Jim Henson Workshop, so it looks like the filmmakers found actual talking critters to populate their movie. And Hugo Weaving is the voice of the lead sheepdog Rex, who doesn't wear a Guy Fawkes mask or beat Keanu Reeves heavily about the face and neck, but does provide a nice redemptive moment towards the end of the film.

Really, if you haven't seen Babe yet, you are absolutely missing out. It's pretty significant that it was the last G-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture (it lost to Braveheart, by the way). And if you don't cry during the climactic finale, your heart is made of stone (clearly, my heart is made of the opposite of stone).