Dark Meat

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Like so much in this harsh world, Babe the sweet-souled, stouthearted pig worked better as a surprise than he does as a sequel. You can't blame the little porker; fame has not gone to his head. But his handlers, led by director George Miller, have succumbed to a desire to test the powers of his innocence against creatures more ferocious than those that inhabited Farmer Hoggett's essentially benign barnyard. Or maybe it was the powers of their special-effects wizardry that they wanted to strut, for the cast members of Babe: Pig in the City are larger, busier and--shall we say?--more emotionally complex than their predecessors. They are mostly residents of the Flealands Hotel, a flophouse in a hellish--well, anyway, heckish--imaginary metropolis where Babe and Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) are obliged to take refuge when a personal appearance Babe was supposed to make goes awry.

Babe's new pals are a testy, teasing, but not entirely lovable lot, among them a poodle that owes a lot to Tennessee Williams' damaged females, a pit bull whose lineage might be traced back to The Godfather's family, and a game, crippled mutt that seems to have been inspired by old Lon Chaney roles. In short, they are knowing yet desperate inventions. So is the farcical but flat rescue that Babe and Mrs. Hoggett lead when their friends are impounded by motivelessly malign city authorities. Studio executives ordered last-minute fixes on the film because they found it too dark in tone, but its inherent, insoluble problem is that in its frenzy to top the original, it has lost touch with the first film's gently whimsical spirit.

--By Richard Schickel