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Babe (1995)
Rating: 7
Chris Noonan
Main Players: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh (Babe)
Story: An orphaned pig goes to a farm, takes a sheep dog as his mother, and becomes a "sheep pig".
Comment: You have no idea how much fun movies can be unless you watch this. You'll get this warm wonderful feeling, much like being with people you love, but, in this case, it's farm animals.
Throughout the movie, you'll be relaxed and witness a delightful story unfold. A piglet, put up for a prize at the county fair, is won by a farmer and it makes friends on the farm; is told that in life, everything has its purpose and cannot stray from it - echoes of Marcus Aurelius. But it nevertheless believes that this is not so, or due to ignorance of youth, it does not comprehend the concept. So the pig befriends the farmer's sheep, and takes the sheep dog as its mother.
If this movie has a central theme that will be lost to its younger viewers, it must be this: That life is never linear, and that we are only limited by our imagination , that our limits are bordered by our fears of the unknown. Maybe, it even advocates, it is good to not know the hard truths about life and continue to view it through our rose-coloured glasses - that youth bestows, and perhaps, we just may achieve the impossible.
In our cynical world, this movie is just a simple one-and-a-half hour of diversion. But to those of us who actually believe in the innate goodness of man, it reminds us that there are other dreamers such as ourselves. We may not see them everyday, but knowing that they're there somehow helps us not to fall into the simple fault of humanity that is the acceptance of our fate.
And while you're pondering this during the movie, look out for the singing field mice.
Review: Watch it with children and be amazed. But watch it for yourself, and be renewed.