Babe [Special Edition] (Widescreen)

I went to this movie in the theaters with no expectations beyond spending some time with my kids watching a goofy film. And I have to admit that the first few minutes in the pig factory had me apprehensive about the motives of the film. But when Hoggett (James Cromwell) and the pig regard each other at the fair, well, I started to be won over. By the time Ferdinand the Duck crows like a rooster, I was with the movie 100%. The whole look of the movie is unique. The voices of the animals are all great and they are given fabulous lines. Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) is fab-u-lous as the silent farmer's ambitious and talkative wife.

There are so many wonderful things about the movie that I cannot name them all, but when Hoggett sings and then dances(!) for Babe to try and inspire the recovery of the pig, well, that is a great scene of all time as far as I am concerned. Magical. How Cromwell created and embodied this character I will never understand. Hoggett is a perfect character for the role he is playing as the man with the taciturn outside and the off the wall inside that can see the sheep pig where his wife sees only meals. How many lessons for life are there in that? They are hard to number.

And who doesn't love Ferdinand leading Babe into the house to try and steal the alarm clock that Ferdinand sees as a threat to his life because it is a mechanical rooster. Since he is a duck the farmer will eat he has become a rooster and now he won't even be needed as that. The funniest bit is when, and you might miss it, all heck breaks loose later in the movie and Ferdinand says "Rinnggg Rinnggg" trying to be the mechanical rooster.

And not enough good things can be said for the wonderful voice Christine Cavanaugh gives to Babe. It is perfect and thought the second movie is very good, it never reaches the perfections of this movie.