Babe Film Response

Overall, I found this movie to be more entertaining that the other ones we have watched so far. The plot was interesting and well developed, the special effects were well done, and the overall theme was one of hope and happiness as opposed to the tone of sadness and depression in the Plague Dogs. While movies that portray more somber stories are beneficial and have an essential role to play in the media as a whole, I found the lighter movie Babe to be more entertaining and fun to watch.

This movie did a great job of subtly (or maybe not so subtly) getting the audience to feel for the animals and identify with them. As we talked about in class, this movie definitely used anthropomorphism in order to make its case for animal rights - and in my opinion, it was successful. As a viewer, I could not help but feel bad for Babe because he always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or cause big problems unintentionally. It was impossible not to feel anxiety when Babe was being chased by the dogs, sadness when the animals were all being captured and separated, and joy when Babe was reunited with the farmer's wife and all the animals lived happily ever after. Although much of the movie was a little on the ridiculous side (like at the end, when the farmer's wife and some of the animals were swinging from the ceiling at that party...), I think it accomplished its goal of portraying animals as human-like and therefore deserving of good treatment.

There were a few times in the movie when I expected a death to occur (like at the beginning when the farmer fell in the well, or when the dog with no hind legs was thrown off the street), but it remained essentially a children's movie with those individuals recovering quickly. Perhaps I was still in the mindset of the Plague Dogs, and that's why I expected more carnage. I liked that this film was so different from the others we have watched because it really presents a more mainstream version of an animal-rights movie. It was able to show us that animal-rights media is not only small-scale and "artsy" (although there is nothing wrong with that), but also that it can be mainstream and big budget as well - which makes it more appealing to people who do not have as much exposure to independent and small-scale films.