Delayed Reaction: Babe: Pig in the City

Premise: Babe finds himself lost in The City.

 

There's an ongoing debate about how much of Babe is George Miller's and how much is Chris Noonan's. Seeing Pig in the City crystalizes my opinion a lot. The way I see it, Noonan could've been any of a dozen directors. Babe needed a journeyman director filter. It needed someone to hear all of Miller's crazy ideas and say "Well, that's obviously too insane, but we can do this much". It's sort of like having a great writer with a proficient editor. Both important skill sets, but very different. The reason why most brilliant things don't find popular success is because they scare the shit out of the average person. Noonan softened the edges of Babe enough to make it a success.

 

Then comes Babe: Pig in the City. George Miller does direct this movie, and it is fully nuts. Like, just an insane movie. But, kind of great too. Miller is excellent at sequels because he's bored by the idea "make it the same, but more". His idea for sequels is "let's do this instead". So, Pig in the City drops virtually everything from the first movie in the first couple minutes. It's contrives a way for Babe to get lost in the City instead his the Hoggetts' farm.

 

And it is very intentionally The City, not a city. Miller and Co. design this amalgamation of all cities, which is brilliant and unhinged. Miller is best known for the Mad Max movies, which are post-apocalyptic. The iconic look of those movies seems to be based on the principle "in a world where society has collapsed, how can people still be excessive?" That's how you get suped up cars and suped up people. Pig in the City turns that same eye to the modern world. In a world with everything, how can the world be more excessive?

 

I prefer the simplicity of the first movie more. The farm setting gave them fewer things to play with and the movie breezes by. Pig in the City is nearly the identical length, but it feels longer. The chapters of the story take bigger swings and the number and type of characters is overwhelming. It's a fun departure. I love that George Miller is crazy enough to try it. It's even got that Gremlins 2 quality, where because it's a less coherent movie, I want to watch it again more  so I can soak in everything going on.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend