DVD Review: Babe - Pig in the City (pig, dogs)

DVD Review:  Babe, Pig in the City with James Cromwell (Universal Pictures, 1998, G, 96 minutes)

This Little Pig Went to the City

Our lovable pig is back, this time in the city having one calamitous adventure after another and this time with (and without) the farmer’s wife

(Farmer Hoggett was laid up after a pig-caused accident).

And, again, dogs abound.

This time, Babe the Pig is out to save the farm, Hoggett Hollow, a place a little left of the twentieth century, from being taken over by the big bad bank.

Dogs Abound in this Little Piggy-Adventure

What do you get when you cross a pink poodle with a bull terrier? Slapstick that is wonderfully, entertainingly different.

Ferdinand the duck, witness to insanity, and, oh dear, another antagonist bull terrier.

A JRT with wheels, Nigel the bulldog, Allen the Mastiff and more – too many to count and also a family of monkeys (including Uncle Thelonius Monk[ey]) with prehensile tails living in a hotel that ends up being a new ‘hotel for dogs’! (plus two sweet new baby monkeys) If that taxes your brain, ask your child to explain the plot for you.

A Little Pig in a Big City

It’s tough when you’re a pig alone in the city: It can leave you lonely, looking for sheep to herd in a city that’s part Hollywood, part Sydney, part Victorian London, part Venice, part Paris, part New York, part fairy tale - lonely and you can’t always put things back together as they were.

Pig Power

Our sweet little hero finally wins in the end and makes everyone a friend but you’ll have to see it to believe how!

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

However, like many movies that are so very very successful that they generate a sequel or two, this pig story is better told in the first movie, Babe, than in Babe: Pig in the City. So, if you have time for only one, Babe is our pick of the litter.

DVD Review: Babe (pig, dogs, sheep, sweet story about cooperation)

DVD Review:  Babe with James Cromwell (Universal Pictures, 1995, G, 92 minutes) (view the trailer here)

A Pig Plus a Slew of Dogs!

In the manner of everyone’s favorite - Charlotte’s Web - Babe is a modern-day classic fairy tale, filmed in Australia but probably meant to depict England in the late 30s or 40s.

And, of course, there are dogs in Babe or you wouldn’t see the review here on DogEvals! There are six adorable plump and klutzy little border collie pups, plus wise and comforting border collie mom Fly, and former champion border collie dad Rex who is a bit hard of hearing – and gruff – and all the barnyard animals who talk so realistically (for those of you who don’t like talking animals).

Mom and Babe in Conversation

Another ‘mom’ is a sheep – for our little orphan pig, Babe, who came to live with the Hoggetts because Farmer H won him by guessing his weight and because they decided to have duck a l’orange instead of ham for Christmas dinner. Whew! Does that make sense? (It will if you are a kid.)

Of course, we have all the dogs competing in the sheepdog competition and the three little field mice who introduce each chapter by ‘singing.’

Babe Turned ‘Ham’ into ‘Champ’

Tall, tall farmer Hoggett (who has to stoop going through doorways) shares the limelight with Babe. Both are entirely delightful – one, quiet and shy, and the other just learning about the world.

A warm and wise narrator plus the sweet little voice of the charming and gifted pig Babe carry the story from barnyard to sheepdog competition and from finally wrangling a waiver to compete to overcoming being the laughing stock of the sheepdog world and being honored with a Welcome Home Champ parade.

The entire viewing is hilariously tense, however. Fun for the whole family.

The Crux of the Plot

The lesson of sweet Babe is that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (translation: you herd sheep better with sweet polite talk than with nipping and commands). And you can’t even tell the real sheep and horses and chickens from the puppet sheep and horses and chickens!

Your family will want to watch Babe at least once a year.

Next: Babe – Pig in the City wherein it is the farmer’s plump little wife who takes over the pig in the city

DVD Review: Karate Dog (for kids, with a cop-cop romance and plenty of karate chops)

DVD Review:  Karate Dog with Jon Voigt and the voice of Chevy Chase (Screen Media, 2006, 84 minutes, PG) See the trailer here.

 Karate Cop? Not!

A dufus of a techie detective teams up with a talking dog (a Briard with a hair cut like a Doodle, voiced by Chevy Chase) who uses karate chops to solve a murder and win the girl cop for his guy.

Delightfully patriarchical bad guy Jon Voigt as you’ve never seen him before. . . . with bushy eyebrows to boot.

Hannibal the white bull terrier (or was his name Cannibal?) playing a bit role and finally, greyhounds galore.

And quips adults may catch like Every Dog Has His Day or Dead Dog Walking.

But, on the whole, this is perhaps a one-star movie for the mannequin-like puppet-like non-dog-like Briard with the cute stand-uppy ears

and a short haircut to mimic a stuffed Briard who can move around and jump and do karate chops

and dance. The younger the kids, the more they will like it. Others will guffaw at the fake dog.

DVD Review: Hotel for Dogs (70 dogs. . . . )

DVD Review:  Hotel For Dogs with Emma Roberts and Don Cheadle (Paramount Studio, 2009/2017, 1 hour and 39 minutes, PG) See the trailer here. 

It’s Time to Revisit the Canine Classics

It’s that time of year again when the family stays home on a chilly Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening to watch a movie - together with the dogs, a pizza delivered and some popcorn – maybe even a neighbor kid or two.

So, let’s revisit some canine classics like Hotel for Dogs (2009) with Julia Roberts’ niece Emma (who is also known for her Nancy Drew) and Don Cheadle, the Academy Award nominee for Hotel Rwanda.

A Dog’s Eye View of New York City

It all starts with Friday, the whitest cutest dog in all of New York City, and a young human Bruce (11 years old) and his sister Andi (16) – a duo in crime with Bruce, a budding young Rube Goldberg*, and Andi, a consummate liar when necessary.

The cast includes “foster parents from hell” (questionable rock stars [one being Lisa Kudrow!] who lock the food up), and perfect social worker Bernie.

Oh, and nearly 70 dogs, the predictable ‘car chase’ in reverse and a predictable ending that everyone will love!!

How the Hotel Francis Duke became the Hotel for Dogs

Thinly disguised New York City or Chicago is the setting for this underrated family flick about a brother-sister duo in foster care and the pet dog they have to take care of, sneakily, since the fosters dislike them and dogs.

The kids and dog stumble onto and into an abandoned hotel, the Hotel Francis Duke, and somehow start collecting stray dogs along with three good friends in crime (including a love interest) but also have to run from the police and Animal Control.

How they manage to do all this and find a new family makes for inspiring family fare.

Because it’s about family and all about family.

Incidentals

The pet food store van has paws and a tail and two of the canines also begin a relationship – Chinese Crested Romeo and white poodle Juliet.

A Dog’s Nose, Up Close and Personal

See New York (Central City) from the point of view of a dog - a pug, a lemon beagle, a St. Bernard, a lab, a Boston, a Mastiff, a Shar Pei, a Golden – Georgia and Henry and Lenny and Chelsea and Cooper, but most of the dogs are all-Americans and each shelter dog was adopted at the end of the movie!

First, A Book

Lois Duncan wrote Hotel for Dogs in 1971 and rewrote it in advance of the movie coming out, with movie details, slightly changed from the original. Duncan appears in the movie and then published two sequels: News for Dogs in 2009

followed by Movie for Dogs (2010).

And, did you know Duncan also wrote a slew of other books, including I Know What You Did Last Summer?

*The contraptions young Bruce comes up with are worth the price of admission: automatic feeding machines that pour kibble from Pedigree dog food cans into bowls at precisely 5 pm, fountains that dogs pee in and exit from by stepping on a platform that causes the fountain to spray water in a self-cleaning manner, ‘toilets’ that collect and bag the poop then put them on an assembly line to toss outside, mechanical ball fetching (throwing) machines, simulated car rides complete with changing scenery and wind, mechanical sheep on bumper cars for border collie Shep to herd, an automatic car wash for dogs – you get the picture. Now, get the movie!