the meaning of Babe

there's a scene in the movie that kind of sums up the overall theme for me. if you've never seen babe, it's a movie about a pig adapting to new life at a farm. farmer arthur hoggett (james cromwell) wins a pig at a carnival (i think that's what it was). after that, babe is befriended by one of the sheepdogs, fly, and learns about the other farm animals.


enough with the background of the movie. what this movie is about is overcoming challenges. farmer hoggett decides to train babe to become a sheep pig, and then compete in a sheepdog competition. one night, babe gets to sleep in the house instead of outside. the house cat tells babe that the only reason he's at the farm is to be eaten.


"Oh, all right. For your own sake, I'll be blunt. Why do the Bosses keep ducks? To eat them. So why do the Bosses keep a pig? The fact is that animals that don't seem to have a purpose really do have a purpose. The Bosses have to eat. It's probably the most noble purpose of all, when you come to think about it."


babe then runs away in the woods, and stays out there all night in the rain. farmer hoggett and the sheep dogs find him the next day, very sick. up next, i have a video of after they find him.


cue youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u5FOfyNInj8&feature=related


the farmer tries to encourage babe to feel better, and he also performs a feat of his own. while doing his jig, he cheers him up by dancing to him and, for the lack of a better term, he gets jiggy with it... i feel like he helps babe by showing him that if you work hard enough, you can do whatever you want (there are probably other interpretations of his jig, but this is mine). he jumps very high, and then lands a little unsteadily. he turns to see babe, but he sees all of his animals watching him, but no babe. to his delight, he realizes babe is already up and ready to go, eating his fill, and then coming back out, as if saying to his master, "i'm ready to go."


i read a bunch of the comments after watching. many people said it was very emotional. a few even said they were crying, and they didn't even know why. after i watched it, i had a feeling of achievement. if a pig can become a sheepdog, why cant we do anything we want, like becoming a general in halo, or having the ability to fly, or even getting to fraternity meetings on time (sorry, that's kind of a stretch).

anywho, i'll leave you not with a video, but with an interesting event.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-04-21-pot-smokers-welcomed-at-university-of-colorado
once again, i do not go to perezhilton. thanks to nicole for this.