Babe (1995)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1995
	Director: Chris Noonan
	Actors: James Cromwell (I, Robot), Magda Szubanski (Happy Feet 1-2), Christine Cavanaugh
	Country: USA, AUS
	Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 17.06.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Farmer Hoggett (Cromwell) wins a piglet at a contest. A special kind of relationship will grow between them, while Babe (voice of Cavanaugh) gets accustomed to the farm animals.
Review: I am not embarrassed to admit that I love this movie. It is for me one of the rare that can pretend to drive adults back to their childhood, only if for a fleeting one and a half hour, an effect that old Disney animated films can sometimes produce as well. The feel-good impression that leaves the movie may come from the original material: Dick King-Smith's 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig. But it is also undoubtedly also due is part to the cinematic adaptation work: scenes in which animals have human reactions brought to the screen thanks to trained animals for large shots, animatronics for close-ups and CGIs for detailed facial expressions and mouth movements when speaking. The movie was directed by Chris Noonan but it is well known that the producer George Miller (director of all Mad Max movies and Happy Feet 1-2) carried the project and may have helped in directing. Yes it is a movie with talking animals (you will recognize the voice of Hugo "Elrond" Weaving as Rex the dog), reminding of the things one can dislike in Disney productions or in kid's movies like Cats and Dogs (and there are many others) in which the animals are equipped with advanced technology (!). In Babe the setting is much more modest and emphasizes the simple life at the farm. The original novel is British, the movie was shot in Australia that looks like New Zealand and Hoggett makes me think of a Hobbit (who respect animals and love things that grow), even the names sound similar. It may be the movie in which I discovered James Cromwell, and I am not surprised that he was nominated for an Oscars, in spite of only 171 words of dialog including 61 sung.
Rating: 9 /10