WHY ‘BABE: PIG IN THE CITY’ IS BETTER THAN ‘BABE’

By Matt Atkinson

I liked Babe for all the usual reasons, but I like Babe: Pig in the City more, and not for

any of the usual reasons, because here is a movie utterly bereft of usual reasons.

Roger Ebert

Introduction

In 1983, Dick King-Smith wrote The Sheep Pig, a book for children about a pig who wants to be a sheepdog. In 1995, Chris Noonan and George Miller adapted The Sheep Pig for film, releasing it as Babe. George Miller followed this in 1998 with a sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.

Fierce debate has sparked up between fans as to which part of the duology is superior. By comparing the original to its sequel, it becomes painfully apparent that the second film is by no means the second best; and is, in fact, a groundbreaking achievement in the field of cinema.

Comparing the Films

1. Babe took $240,700,000 at the Box Office worldwide; Pig in the City made slightly less, at $69,131,860. This is because people were so confused by Babe that they had to return to watch it multiple times.

2. Babe was nominated for seven Academy Awards, only winning theBest Visual Effects category. Pig in the City was only nominated for one award, Best Original Song, which it won. Therefore, Pig in the City has a 100% ratio of Oscar nominations to wins, while Babe has a mere 14% success rate. (The reason Pig in the City was nominated for fewer awards is that the Academy is notoriously afraid of groundbreaking cinema.)

3. Babe only features farm animals; Pig in the City has the same cast of pigs, ducks and sheep, but brings into the mix a pink poodle, a dog in a wheelchair, and a monkey called Thelonious.

4. Repeat: Pig in the City stars a monkey called Thelonious. Babe does not star a monkey called Thelonious. I think this is the crux of my argument.

5. Babe is set on a farm, which is pretty boring. Pig in the City is set in Metropolis, a city boasting the Eiffel Tower, various skyscrapers, the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge and many other famous landmarks. That is not boring at all.

6. Both films were banned in Malaysia. However, while Babe was banned because it was super boring, Pig in the City was banned because it was considered too radical and revolutionary by Malaysia’s reactionary government.

Conclusions

Don’t get me wrong, Babe is a good film; it’s just not as good as Babe: Pig in the City. Never before (or since) has a children’s film captured the imagination quite like Babe, but never before or since has a film of any kind been as great as Pig in the City. Surely that’ll do?