"When those little mice bust a gut trying to drag that key up hundreds of stairs in order to free Cinderella, I don't care how many Kubrick pictures you've seen, it's still exciting."
-Roger Ebert
There is a moment at the end of Babe that reminds me of this quote every time I see the movie. Farmer Hoggett is watching his sheep-pig herd sheep in front of a stunned audience. As the sheep make their way around the arena toward the center pen, the audience sits in silence. As Babe the pig cajoles the last of the sheep into the pen, Farmer Hoggett walks over to the pen gate. As the gate slowly latches shut, the audience erupts into thunderous applause. I don't care what weighty topics I have seen in movies, or what death defying stunts I have seen, there are few moments in movies that are as exciting as this moment is for me.
It is a classic for the whole family. But what struck me when I first saw this movie on video some 16-17 years ago was how the stuffy critics simply loved it. It didn't take long after popping the video tape into the VCR to understand why. Here was a movie that clearly loved the story it had to tell, and loved the fact that it was pulling every heart string available. It follows the adventures of a runt pig who manages to avoid becoming bacon and make it to a farm. Once there, he must somehow convince the farmer to not use him for Christmas dinner. One of the reasons the movie works so well is the all of the animals in it are somewhat lovable, but there is a sort of Orwellian darkness to it as well, invoking Animal Farm and the proper place for each animal on the farm. Since pigs' purpose is to be eaten, the powers that be in the animal community look upon this gifted pig with suspicion.
But seriously, it's not as serious as all that. In the end, Famer Hoggett sees a possibility in the pig, and the pig becomes a sheep herder. This eventually leads to the climactic moment I mentioned above. But the movie would be just another story if it were not so well realized. The animals are so believable, and the colors and production design add texture to the story. Since we are never told a setting, there is something in the way the movie is visualized and photographed that always make the world it is in seem fantastic. It looks enough like our world to be see some reality, but it is fanciful enough for us to realize we are in a different place all togther.
Sometimes basic and innocent storytelling has a power that realism simply cannot bring. What a movie like this shows us is that cinema and its art has a wide variety to offer, from the serious and ponderous to the silly and childlike. That'll do....
