YMMV / Babe: Pig in the City

• Adorkable:
  • Esme is a short, plump and very clumsy older lady, whose plain appearance and rural mannerisms are completely out of place in the extravagant and darker environment of Metropolis. Thanks to her innocence and ignorance on how to handle life in a world that's completely different from her home, she gets dragged into various embarassing situations, with each growing worse than the last. Yet she refuses to give up no matter what the city throws at her. Her efforts to rescue Babe and keep him safe even as her dignity is torn to shreds are a mixture of awesome, touching and darkly funny all at the same time.
  • The Landlady, a kindly woman who adores animals and wants to create a peaceful sanctuary for the many stray ones that inhabit the city, despite apparently suffering from several allergies to them.
• Angst? What Angst?: Despite going through several degrading and humiliating experiences during her time in the city (most of which happen in public), the innocent country dweller Esme Hoggett never seems to lose her determination, and by the end of the movie is as cheery and smiley as ever. Granted, things do end well for her at the end, but it can still come across as odd she doesn't let the messy and difficult misadventures she gets dragged into discourage her, and how she doesn't react to them with more than embarassed looks.
• Awesome Music:
  • Je ne regrette rien features prominently in the movie, well before Inception used it as its central theme.
  • The soft, instrumental version of "If I Had Words" playing when Babe jumps into the water to save the bull terrier from drowning.
  • "Protected by Angels" playing when the humans break into the motel to remove all the animals, is simply gorgeous.
  • The end credits, featuring the gentle "That'll Do" by Peter Gabriel.
• Broken Base: The slapstick comedy scenes involving Esme are subjected to some debate among fans of the film. Some believe that they are too cartoonish and totally out of place when compared to the serious tone of the movie's other scenes, others find them genuinely entertaining and view them as a welcome relief from the movie's more dramatic sequences.
• Contested Sequel: To some, it's a terrible film that simply doesn't do the original justice because of how dark it is and because it takes Babe off the familiar farm setting. To others, it's a brilliant follow up to an already great film, and some people (including both Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel) thought it was even better than the original.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The increasingly humiliating situations that Esme goes through as the plot advances. They can come across as a shock, especially to those who weren't expecting this type of comedy or tone in the sequel to the relatively grounded first film, but they're so cartoonishly over the top and exaggerated when compared to the rest of the movie that they become hilarious instead of genuinely offending.
  • First, she gets accused of carrying illegal substances at the airport, which results in the security staff dragging her to a room for a strip search. Her shocked expression and baffled "Pardon?" when asked to remove her clothes is what really sells it.
  • Later, she ventures into the city to look for a missing Babe, following false instructions given by Fugly Floom. She ends up accidentally attracting unwanted attention from both a biker gang and unfriendly police officers. The bikers attempt to steal her purse, and after defending herself, she ends up causing a riot... which results in a bucket of billboard glue dropping on her head, covering her hair and clothes in the stuff. To add insult to injury, she ends up loosing her purse anyway, as one of the rioters snatches it after the glue falls on her. And, of course, she also ends up in trouble with the law once again, and is arrested alongside her attackers.
  • Then, once she gets released from prison and returns to the hotel, her glue-covered dress splits open, which forces her to race to Babe's rescue while wearing nothing but the goofy clown suit of Fugly.
  • And, finally, she gets dragged around in more comical slapstick violence scenes during the climax at the fancy dinner party, which includes this portly woman battling chefs and flying around the ballroom like a circus acrobat. For a while, it seems like she actually has the upper hand over her adversaries this time... but then she ends up bumping into a waiter, who pulls off a tag from her clown costume. This results in the worst humiliation yet, as it causes a rubbber suit beneath the clown costume to begin inflating out of nowhere to an alarming size, which once again results in the destruction of her clothes and leaves her turned into a bloated humanoid balloon in front of dozens of staring people. The stunned look on Esme's face, the fact that it happens out of nowhere, the silence that falls on the ballroom after it's over, the rather good practical effects during the scene, and the entire idea of a single person having such rotten luck makes this a nice punchline to the chaotic climax, as well as some good dark and surrealistic comedy.
  • There's also the fact that the parts of the inflating rubber suit that inflate the most are around Esme's backside, and that the suit itself is flesh coloured, which makes it look like it's Esme's own rear that's growing. This, combined with her grunts and moans as it expands, makes the entire sequence feel rather suggestive. But it's precisely this, as well as the fact that such an inappropriate thing is happening to an older motherly woman, what makes it genuinely funny.
  • Also, the scene in which Ferdinand lands in a shooting range. The idea of one of Babe's friends being shot at is quite frightening, but the people attempting to drown the duck in bulllets are so comically trigger-happy that it turns the scene right back into funny.
• Cult Classic: A few decades past its unsuccessful theatrical run, its quirky charm has slowly earned it a cult fanbase.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Before leaving for the trip, Esme promises Arthur that she won't let anything bad happen to his beloved pig. When Babe goes missing, she goes to great lengths (and even sacrifices her dignity) just to get him back, all so she won't end up breaking her promise to her husband.
  • After the judge hears Esme's long-winded story about her husband's pig, he decides to let her go free because he was raised on a farm and liked pigs.
• Jerkass Woobie: He's stoic, and kind of an ass, but Thelonious has moments where you can't help but feel bad for the guy. He just wants to be human.
• Les Yay: At times during the film, there is sexual tension between Esme Hoggett and the Landlady, most notably the scene where Esme returns from jail back to the Hotel to meet up again with the Landlady.
• Narm Charm: The movie's climax can come across as this. It features Esme finally taking a more aggressive attitude in the unfriendly city in order to finally get Babe back, invading a fancy party together with the Landlady, and getting involved in aerial slapstick battles with said party's security staff, all while wearing an inflatable clown suit. It may feel completely ridiculous to see an old and plump woman dressed as a clown fighting chefs while bungee-jumping among dozens of rich and well-dressed people, particularly when the worst happens and her suit is accidentally inflated, but yet it still manages to create a good balance between action and comedy, managing to be both an engaging and funny conclusion to the movie's story.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The scene where Ferdinand lands only to be shot by members of a rifle range. In a freaking CHILDREN'S MOVIE!
  • Also, the fire scene at the children's hospital can be extremely frightening to watch.
  • You must have a very thin grasp on reality. Unless of course, you are suicidal.
  • Fugly Floom in general is a bit unnerving. While he's not exactly evil, he's clearly not completely all right in the head, and saw nothing wrong with kidnapping Babe to use in his shows and lying to Esme's face about her pet's whereabouts.
  • In the movie's original script, he gave off even worse vibes, as he's portrayed as a chain smoker and hopeless sugar addict who is slowly killing himself with his vices. His attitude towards Esme (who is too innocent to notice) is also shown in a more predatory light, with him squeezing her arm and giving her "bedroom eyes". In addition, he was also apparently disowned by his parents and blacklisted from working with any other clowns in the city. This, together with his general lack of social skills and suggestive behaviour to Esme, makes you wonder just what exactly he did...
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Nathan Kress of iCarly fame makes his debut voicing a puppy at the hotel.
  • One of the lab women in the airport was played by Jennifer Kent, who was later the director of The Babadook.
• Vindicated by History: Was a Box Office Bomb and received polarizing reviews, resulting in George Miller not helming a live-action film for seventeen years. It's now slowly but surely gaining a sizable cult following.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Part of the reason why the movie proved to be so divisive when it was released, and (to a lesser extent) still is. The first movie, while quite mature for a children's movie, was still generally light-hearted in its themes and story. This title, however, features Babe's home being dangerously close to being foreclosed after Arthur Hoggett suffers a nasty accident within the first minutes and becomes unable to work. The rest of the story proves to be just as serious and dark, as most of it takes place on the city of Metropolis, which has a much more surrealistic and oppressive atmosphere than the peaceful rural fields of the first movie. And while there is still plenty of humor in this title, most of it (particularly during the scenes involving Esme) is much more violent, mean-spirited and suggestive than the humor in the first one.
  • Notably, the movie was originally planned to be even darker, rated PG-13 or even R, suggesting it wasn't even being planned as a traditional children's movie at first.
• The Woobie: Pretty much all the animals could count, but Flealick stands out especially. He's perky, nice, and yet comes closest to dying. Never mind the fact that his back legs don't work.

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