Babe: Pig in the City (1998, G)

Directed by George Miller (Babe)

Written by George Miller, Judy Morris, and Mark Lapprell

Starring James Cromwell and Madge Szubanski

With the voices of Elizabeth Daily, Danny Mann, and Steven Wright

As reviewed by James Brundage

The problem with sequels is that they try too much to be like the original. Sure, there are a few exceptions. I can't think of any right off the top of my head, but rule #665 in The Critic's Bible: there are exceptions to every rule. Babe, by all accounts, was an intelligent, thought out movie. Babe: Pig in the City, trys and trys but can't quiet do it.

Sure, the humor is moderatly intelligent and the narration includes things like a mention of the chaos theory, but when it boils down to it, Babe II was just like every other sequel: an attempt to carbon copy the original. But, friends, the great copy machine known as Hollywood is broken, and has never gotten a repairman, so we are doomed to watch screwed up attempts at copying, remakes gone wrong, and things screwed up.

Babe II disappoints. It disappoints so much that I'll give you the plot summary and then leave you be because talking about it makes my relive the relative boredom of sitting in front of the screen with talking animals on it.

Babe comes back from winning the sheep-herding contest he won last movie and, when the farmer is injured and the farm goes into debt, Babe has to go to the city. Of course he's separated from his human and of course he saves the day for man and animal alike. There's really nothing that's anything but simplistic about it. It's a movie void with laughs.

Now I promised I'd shut up so I will, but if you see Babe: Pig in the City, don't come to me complaining about it.