A pig named Babe
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A pig named Babe |
| Original title | Babe |
| Country of production | Australia , USA |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK o. A. |
| Rod | |
| Director | Chris Noonan |
| script |
Chris Noonan George Miller |
| production |
George Miller Doug Mitchell Bill Miller |
| music | Nigel Westlake |
| camera | Andrew Lesnie |
| cut |
Marcus D'Arcy Jay Friedkin |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
|
Babe is an Australian family film from the year 1995 . It is based on the children's book Had a Pig, Knirps! (Original title: The Sheep Pig ) by Dick King-Smith . The main characters are James Cromwell and Magda Szubanski , who play the farmer couple Hoggett under the direction of Chris Noonan . In addition, numerous voice actors, including Hugo Weaving , speak the animals so that the dialogues between them are made understandable to the viewer. The film opened in German cinemas on December 7, 1995.
action
Piglet Babe, a name with which all piglets were addressed by their mother, initially grew up in a pig breeding facility when, shortly after his mother was picked up from a slaughterhouse, it was selected as a prize for a competition for a folk festival that was soon to take place. On this one he meets the farmer Arthur Hoggett for the first time, who also wins the piglet by guessing Babe's weight correctly. Although Hoggett does not keep pigs, he accepts the price because Christmas is just around the corner and Babe is being planned as a Christmas roast.
So Babe finally arrives at Arthur Hoggett's and his wife Esme's farm, where he attracts the attention of the puppies of border collie Fly and her husband Rex. While Fly feels sorry for the sad piggy and takes heart, Rex, who values the traditions on the farm, is far less happy about it. As an exception, he allows Babe to stay with the dogs in the barn until he has settled in on the farm. A short time later, Babe gets to know the duck Ferdinand, who, however, crows like a rooster in order to serve a purpose on the farm and thus avoid slaughter. However, the Hoggetts bought an alarm clock, which bothers him. He gets Babe to illegally enter the house in order to steal and remove the alarm clock. The piggy wakes the insidious cat Duchess and causes chaos. He is placed in the barn in front of a kind of tribunal , presided over by Rex, and refers to the natural appeal of the individual species. He also forbids Babe from contact with Ferdinand, who has been hiding ever since. Shortly afterwards the pups of Fly and Rex are sold, which makes Fly very sad. When Babe asks if he can call her mom, Fly adopts him.
With his friendly manner, Babe quickly arouses the sympathy of the other animals. Shortly afterwards he accompanies Hoggett, Fly and Rex, who was the national sheepdog competition champion, to the herd of sheep. There he gets to know the herd's alpha animal, the somewhat elderly Maa, who is delighted with the little pig and his politeness. He is spared the fate of the slaughter when Hoggett decides to slaughter an unspecified duck for a Christmas roast. So Ferdinand decides to leave the farm and asks Babe to open the gate for him and then disappears. Babe notices that something is wrong in the flock of sheep and so illegally leaves the farm. In the area where the sheep graze, cattle thieves are up to mischief, which causes the sheep to panic. Babe runs back to the farm as fast as he can and tells Fly about it, who in turn warns Hoggett. Together they can save the majority of the herd. This incident inspires Babe to try and practice herding sheep by separating the chickens according to the color of their plumage. This is observed by Hoggett, who is impressed by the piggy.
So it happens that Babe accompanies Hoggett to the flock of sheep with Fly and Rex. When Fly Babe gave tips on how to herd sheep, she angry with Rex. Babe tries to run the flock of sheep the way dogs do, with an authoritarian tone. When Babe fails to do this, he bites Maa in the leg, who is amazed at Babe's sudden rowdy behavior. Babe apologizes and Maa advises him to lead the sheep with his friendly manner, which works too. Babe manages to lead the sheep into the fence without any problems. But because he fears that he has annoyed Rex with it, he confides in Fly, who wants to clarify this with her husband. He is so angry during the pronunciation that he attacks Fly and injures his leg and bites Hogget's hand. He is then put on the chain. Babe, who is sure that he can de-escalate the situation, seeks a conversation with Rex and is attacked by him too. Then Rex is examined and sedated by the vet . Hogget has no choice but to hand over the task of the dogs to Babe.
Fly then tells Babe what is wrong with Rex. Rex was originally a great shepherd, multiple and national champion. He almost became the greatest champion of all time. Shortly before his last competition, however, a storm flooded the valley in which the Hoggetts live. Hoggett and Rex managed to save most of the sheep and Rex stayed behind to secure the stragglers. But these were already trapped by the floods and could not get away. Rex stayed with the sheep until the end, and they eventually drowned and Rex himself barely survived. However, he has had a hearing loss since then and could not win the competition because he did not understand the commands of his master.
A few days later, Babe notices again that the flock of sheep is panicking. He sees that a small three-headed pack of wild dogs is attacking the flock of sheep and how they are trying to kill Maa. Babe makes this so angry that he attacks and rams the dogs, which then run away. However, any help comes too late for Maa, she bleeds to death and dies, whereupon Babe and the herd mourn for her. When Hoggett reaches the herd, all he sees is the bloodied babe and is certain that he killed Maa. He decides to shoot Babe. Fly, who has doubts that Babe Maa of all people should have killed, confides in the sheep. But they hesitate at first because the sheep consider the dogs, which they always call wolves, to be ignorant. In return, the dogs think sheep are stupid. Nevertheless, they get along and the sheep explain to Fly what happened. Fly then storms back to the farm, where Hoggett has finished preparing to kill Babes. Fly can keep him from doing so until his wife Esme tells him about a warning from the police that wild dogs have killed sheep on the neighboring farms, so he refrains from shooting.
Shortly thereafter, Esme Hoggett goes on an outing with friends and her husband can calmly prepare for the upcoming national sheepdog competition. Hoggett is determined to enter Babe for this competition but is concerned that the competitor will have to be a dog. After carefully studying the rules and the fact that the registration form only asks for the name of the animal and not the name of the dog, he enters Babe as Pig and faxes the form to the organizers. Since the weather is bad outside, he allows Babe to stay inside. When Babe tries to contact Duchess the cat, she scratches him and is thrown out of the house by Hoggett. She takes revenge on the fact that she later apparently apologizes to Babe and reveals to him the true nature of the pigs, namely that of fattening and slaughtering as well as human consumption, which Babe absolutely upsets. He runs to Fly, who unfortunately can only agree with the story of the cat.
The next morning Babe ran away. Hoggett is pointed out to this by Rex and Fly and they desperately search for the pig that is hiding in a nearby cemetery. Hoggett takes him home, but Babe is still so scared by the fact that he even refuses to eat. Only with effort and physical effort does Hoggett manage to rebuild Babe and get him to eat. This is how babe is prepared for the big day.
When the time comes, the reactions are, as was to be expected, devastating. The audience laughs at Hoggett, the jury and other participants are outraged and demand an investigation. But Hoggett is not impressed. Meanwhile, Babe tries to talk to his flock of sheep, but they completely ignore him, which totally unsettles Babe. While Hoggett waits for the jury's decision, Rex dives back to the farm to ask the sheep for help. Similar to Fly before, he kindly tries to ask the sheep to help him and Babe. The sheep agree to call Rex a watchword if he does not abuse it, as Maa would have wanted it to. Rex agrees, receives the watchword and runs back to the competition, where the jury has no choice but to admit Babe. Rex gives Babe the watchword and with this Babe manages to lead the sheep through their predetermined route under the shocked eyes of the audience and jury, as well as the animals at the farm, who happen to be watching the competition on TV. When Hoggett closes the gate, the audience breaks out in cheers and applause, and Babe gets full marks. Hoggett praises Babe for doing well.
background
Forty-eight piglets were trained to play the role of Babe. However, animatronic animals were also used in some scenes .
No animal is said to have been harmed during the shooting. On the contrary, it was contractually guaranteed that even after the shooting, the piglets used would never be allowed to be slaughtered.
There are several dubbed versions of this film: The film has been translated into the various regional dialects for Austria. There is also a version in Swiss German, spoken by the actress Ursula Schäppi .
James Cromwell went vegan while filming .
In 1998, the sequel Piggy Babe in the Big City was created .
synchronization
| role | Original speaker | German speaker | Austrian speaker | Swiss German speakers |
| Babe | Christine Cavanaugh | Anne Helm | Ulrike Beimpold | Ursula Schaeppi |
| Fly (mother dog) | Miriam Margolyes | Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif | Senta-Maria Parsons | |
| Ferdinand (duck) | Danny Mann | Michael Pan | Andy Woerz | Walter Andreas Müller |
| Rex (dog father) | Hugo Weaving | Roland Hemmo | Gerald Pichowetz | Inigo Gallo |
| Maa (sheep) | Miriam Flynn | Natascha Petz | Christine Brandner | |
| Duchess / Duchess (cat) | Russi Taylor | Judy Winter | Bettina Barth-Wehrenalp | |
| Arthur Hoggett | James Cromwell | Hans Nitschke | Dietrich Siegl | |
| Mrs. Hoggett | Magda Szubanski | Sonja German | Martina Heim | |
| teller | Roscoe Lee Browne | Joachim Nottke | Florentin's grudge |
Awards
A pig named Babe won an Oscar for special effects . There were further Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Film , Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Director , Best Supporting Actor , Best Production Design and Best Editing .
The film also received numerous Australian and British film awards.
Reviews
Bob Bloom ( Journal and Courier ) describes a pig called Babe as one of the "most beautiful family films of all time".
Ken Hanke ( Mountain Xpress ) rates the film as "surprisingly good".
literature
- Dick King-Smith : pig, toddler! (Original title: The Sheep Pig ). German by Anne Braun. With illustrations by Mary Rayner. 4th edition. Sauerländer, Aarau, Frankfurt am Main and Salzburg 1996, 138 pages, ISBN 3-7941-3904-6
- Ron Fontes and Justine Korman: A pig called Babe. Based on the script by George Miller and Chris Noonan. Based on the book by Dick King-Smith (Original title: Babe ). German by Nicola Aschenbrenner. (Approved paperback edition.) Goldmann, Munich 1996, 60 pages, ISBN 3-442-43616-8
Web links
- Babe in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Babe at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112431/awards
