Babe

Babe was released on August 4, 1995. It was 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. The film is narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne and the main animal characters are played by both real animals and animatronic puppets. It starred James Cromwell and Magda Szubanski. It featured the voices of Christine Cavanaugh as Babe with additional voices provided by Hugo Weaving, Miriam Margolyes, Miriam Flynn and Roscoe Lee Browne as the Narrator. The main animal characters are played by a combination of real and animatronic pigs and Border Collies The breed of pig used was a Large White, which grows rapidly. On account of this, 46 piglets of the required size were used during the course of the filming, as well as the animatronic model for special effects. The film is divided into six chapters to preserve the storybook-like feel of the original novel (although none of the film's chapters are the same as the book's). The film's mice characters were subsequently added to read the chapters aloud after a test screening in which producer George Miller noted that younger audiences had trouble reading them, needing help from the adults. After seven years of development, Babe was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia. The talking-animal visual effects were done by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The film was both a box office and critical success, grossing $254 million worldwide and earning seven Oscar nominations, including a win for Best Visual Effects.

According to actor James Cromwell, there was tension on the set between producer George Miller and director Chris Noonan. Noonan later complained, "I don't want to make a lifelong enemy of George Miller, but I thought that he tried to take credit for Babe, tried to exclude me from any credit, and it made me very insecure... It was like your guru has told you that you are no good and that is really disconcerting." Miller shot back, "Chris said something that is defamatory: that I took his name off the credits on internet sites, which is just absolutely untrue. You know, I'm sorry but I really have a lot more to do with my life than worry about that... when it comes to Babe, the vision was handed to Chris on a plate". In 1998, a sequel directed by Miller, Babe: Pig in the City, was released. In 2006, a video game of the same name based on the film, was published by Mastertronic for the PlayStation 2. When James Cromwell was handed the screenplay for Babe, he thumbed through it to see how many lines he had. He saw that he didn't have that many (he had only 171 words of spoken dialogue, and 61 words that were sung), so decided that he would do it as a nice easy film. What he didn't realize was that he would have more screen time in this film than any of his previous films. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. He claimed that he paid for his own Oscar consideration campaign at the cost of $60,000. James Cromwell, a longtime vegetarian, decided to become a vegan after starring in the movie. USA pork sales dropped by 20% after the movie came out. Magda Szubanski was only in her early 30s when she won the role of Esme Hoggett, who was supposed to be elderly, so Szubanski was made up to look about 20 years older. Jerry Goldsmith originally composed the film's music, but it was ultimately rejected for being too dark in tone. Nigel Westlake was then brought in to compose a lighter score. The music for the movie's theme song is taken from the Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns, whose most famous composition is "Carnival of the Animals." It was released in 1995. which also happened to be the year of the pig.