Babe

Babe (1995) is about a pig who decides to become a sheepdog. Babe is weighed at a fair and given away as a prize. Farmer Hoggett wins him. A pig is normally raised for Christmas dinner; Babe does not know this, and notices that everyone on the farm has a job. He looks for one. Sheepdogs move sheep by shouting and biting. Babe cannot do that; instead he talks to the sheep and asks them. It works. That is the idea: rules determine what an animal is allowed to be, and rules can be changed. Hoggett defends it although the whole village laughs at him. The animals speak, but only among themselves; the people do not hear. That distinction is kept throughout. Technically it was among the hardest jobs of its period. Real animals, animatronic puppets and digital mouth movement were used together. A great many piglets were used for Babe, because pigs grow so fast that their size changes within weeks. It won the visual effects Oscar and was nominated in seven categories including best picture. It is adapted from Dick King-Smith's children's book. George Miller, who made the Mad Max films, produced and co-wrote. James Cromwell plays the farmer and has around a page of dialogue in the whole film; he was nominated for an Oscar. He became a vegetarian after making it and has worked on animal rights since. The last line is the best known moment in it. It runs 91 minutes. Good for: family film, animal stories, and the nineties. Less good for: one section is about death and slaughter and may be heavy for small children.