Babe (1995)

I absolutely *love* Babe and always will! This wonderful and utterly family-friendly movie has a pastoral setting (filmed in New South Wales), affably sweet farm animals (save one grouchy sheepdog), the taciturn Farmer Arthur Hoggett (James Cromwell) and his butterball wife Mrs. Esme Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) -- and Babe himself (voiced by Christine Cavanaugh), who is more polite, spirited, and enterprising than Charlotte's own Wilbur the pig. The movie's Oscar-winning animatronics were groundbreaking and remain so while its six other Oscar nominations and more than a dozen international film award wins attest to director Chris Noonan's devotion to detail. Babe's story begins "This is the story of an unprejudiced heart and how it changed our valley forever" and advances -- while framed by animated vignettes (each with a too-cute chorus of mice) and brief narrative snippets -- to depict how Babe came to live on the farm and discover his unique gift. Babe is the humble star though every farm animal around Babe has a personality and voice characterization and I love each one: Fly the female sheepdog (Miriam Margolyes), Rex the male sheepdog (Hugo Weaving), Maa the very old ewe (Miriam Flynn), and dozens more. Esme Hoggett may be a caricature but she conveys an amiable groundedness. Farmer Hoggett is iconic in his laconic propensity to eschew speech so his body language and facial expressions all the more powerfully convey an earthy rootedness -- esp. when crowned by his smile and closing words "That'll do, pig." Perhaps you will come to love "Babe, the Gallant Pig" as well as the Camille Saint-Saëns excerpt from "Carnival of the Animals" adapted to folk song and fanfare: "If I had words to make a day for you ... I would make this day last for all time ..." I know I have fallen in love with this sentimental favorite! 5 stars.