Movie Review: Babe (1995)

The movie stars James Cromwell, Christine Cavanaugh, Danny Mann, Miriam Margoyles and Hugo Weaving.

My wife had to work at the bar last night and, when I saw this film was on one of our movie channels, I decided to record it and watch it with the girls. It had been a while since I had watched the movie and, after seeing it again, I have to admit it was much better than I remembered. 

I think the thing I found I liked about this movie is it wasn't quite as predictable as I remembered. There were quite a few twists and turns throughout the film, ranging from Babe facing certain death on Christmas Eve to him being accused of murdering one of the sheep, and this kept the movie entertaining from start to finish.

Adding to the charm of the movie was the way the writers managed to keep some silliness in it. n particular, I liked the farmer's (Cromwell) wife (Magda Szubanski), and the way she managed to keep things from becoming too serious, especially when she learns what her husband is up to. This is something I wish more family movies would do.

Probably the only thing I wasn't a huge fan of (and would caution parents of young children about) is the way the movie doesn't sugar coat the farmer's intentions, including going as far as having him kill one of the farm animals (albeit off screen) and showing the family eat it. It's hard enough getting my daughters to eat meat, this movie might have set that effort back a bit.

There are also some other scenes, such as when the sheep, Maa (Miriam Flynn) is attacked by a pack of stray dogs, that are pretty intense. Even though my youngest daughter didn't say anything about it, I'm sure she wasn't a huge fan of that moment.

As I mentioned, there were some parts of this movie that might be a little too intense for young children. However, the film, overall, is very charming, funny and a great family movie. I do recommend taking the time to watch it with your family as a result.

My Grade: A