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Babe is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by Chris Noonan, produced by George Miller and written by both. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith's 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, which tells the story of a farm pig who wants to do the work of a sheepdog.
Dec 21, 2023 · The film was based on the 1983 novel “The Sheep-Pig” by Dick King-Smith. The adaptation stayed true to the essence of the book, delighting fans of the original story. Babe was a critically acclaimed film, receiving seven Academy Award nominations.
- Gary Susman
- Freelance Writer
- In 1986, producer/co-screenwriter Miller became interested in the story during a long plane flight from Sydney to London, where the woman seated next to him was laughing uproariously at Dick King-Smith's book, "The Sheep-Pig."
- Part of the reason it took nearly a decade to get the film made was British author King-Smith's objection to Miller's insistence on shooting the film in his native Australia.
- The other reason it took so long: Miller was waiting for technology to catch up with his vision of putting live, talking animals on screen.
- The animals were a combination of real critters trained by Californian Karl Lewis Miller (the animal trainer behind the "Beethoven" films and "Cujo"), the London-based Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and John Cox's Creature Shop in Australia, which built animatronic animals to match the real ones.
- James Cromwell thought the original idea for Babe was silly. When actor James Cromwell first heard about Babe, which is based on Dick King-Smith's novel, “I thought it sounded silly,” he told Vegetarian Times.
- Farmer Hoggett has just 16 lines in Babe. But by that point, Cromwell was already sold on the script, intrigued by what he called the “sophisticated yet pure-of-heart piglet.”
- It took 48 different pigs to play the role of Babe. Because pigs grow quickly, the crew utilized four dozen Large White Yorkshire piglets throughout the course of filming, shooting six at a time over a three-week period.
- Babe also featured one animatronic pig. Animal trainer Karl Lewis Miller seemed almost embarrassed to admit that they did have one animatronic pig play Babe, too.
Babe: Directed by Chris Noonan. With Christine Cavanaugh, Miriam Margolyes, Danny Mann, Hugo Weaving. Gentle farmer Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner, Babe bonds with motherly border collie Fly and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other animals accept him?
- (136K)
- Comedy, Drama, Family
- Chris Noonan
- 1995-08-04
Aug 2, 2020 · "Babe" Universal. “Babe” turns 25 on August 4, and the sweet, endearing family drama from Down Under, about an orphan pig winning a sheepherding competition, revolutionized the talking animal...
Jul 11, 2024 · Babe is a 1995 Australian-British-American film about a Large White who wants to be a sheepdog. It is directed by Chris Noonan, based on the book The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith, and written by George Miller and Chris Noonan. A little pig goes a long way. (taglines)
