Babe Blog

The movie Babe 2: A Pig in the City was surprisingly interesting and portrayed a lot of examples of anthropomorphism. The main plot of the film is the adventures of Babe and his farmer’s wife when they decide to travel to the city looking for a way to make a little extra money for the upkeep and survival of their farm.

The example of anthropomorphism that stuck out to me the most was when the orangutan was determined to be completely dressed before making their escape from the animal laboratory that they were taken to. Time was of the essence and instead of not even worrying about clothes, he was determined to be dressed before going back out into the public. To the orangutan’s obsession with clothes, Babe says, “But you’re an orangutan. Orangutans don’t wear clothes!” This bluntly reveals the anthropomorphic nature of the orangutan. Most humans would never dare to venture out without clothes on and the orangutan shows the same preoccupation with clothes that a human would.

Watching this movie made me think of the various other American, specifically Disney, films that include anthropomorphism- Dumbo, 101 Dalmatians, the three mice form Cinderella, the Fox and the Hound, and even King Kong. I think our culture is somewhat ironic because while we eat animals, torture them, and use them for experimentation, we also teach our children to help them, save them, and respect them.  All of the movies that I listed above all anthropomorphize animals in such a way that puts them on equal playing fields with humans. Many times humans even befriend these animals and have purposeful, well-thought out conversations with them. Although animals obviously cannot talk, I think that these movies and Babe specifically, has good meaning behind it. Animals are often ill-treated and that is not right. The one example that I can think of from the movie that I thought represented our culture’s attitudes towards animals, was the woman who lived across the street from the animals hotel. She was always complaining about the noise and thought that the animals were nothing but a nuisance. I don’t believe that animals are on the same level as humans intellectually and morally, but that still doesn’t discount our duty and responsibility to respect them and I think that this movie emphasized that point to me in a unique way.