- Accidental Innuendo: Mrs. Hoggett polishes a first prize trophy for the Kingsmith Dick Show, which is a Shout-Out to the author of the original novel, but sounds like something much less innocent.
- Adaptation Displacement: The movie is far more widely known than the original book, The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith. This is less so in Britain, though, where Dick King-Smith is a well-known children's author.
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Rex could have left the sheep in the storm and saved himself, but didn't. Did he stay with them because it was his duty to get them to safety, or did he just not have the heart to abandon them?
- Alternatively, were the sheep really too stupid to save themselves, or was Rex just using the same fear tactics to herd them that he and Fly have always used? It's possible they didn't follow him because they saw him as a 'wolf' blocking their only path to safety, and all he did to reassure them was shout threats.
- Awesome Music: "If I Had Words", which ranges from sweet, heartwarming, and even a bit of a Tear Jerker, to plain awesome when the orchestra cuts in. As well it should be, considering its tune comes from Symphony No. 3 in C minor by Camille Saint-Saëns! Also the end credits version: those mice really can show off their pipes!
- Base-Breaking Character: The mice, being either adorable or just annoying.
- Crosses the Line Twice: Mrs. Hoggett is a surprising source of this:
- Her talking about all the edible part(s) of a pig... in an incredibly cheerful tone of voice.
- When Mr. Hoggett is about to shoot Babe because he thought he killed Maa, Mrs. Hoggett comes out and mentions that she was told about feral dogs being around the area... and then casually asks "What are you doing with that gun?".
- Designated Villain: The Cat. The narrator describes her as 'A mean cat with a grudge' though in her two prior appearances she was minding her own business before Babe got her in trouble. In the first case Babe ruined the house and doused her in paint, causing her to get hit with a broom. In the second meeting she was understandably hostile towards him, scratching him when he refused to leave her alone, leading to her being forced outside in a thunderstorm. It's fairly understandable he isn't her favorite animal on the farm.
- Jerkass Woobie: Rex. He has a terribly tragic backstory and proves himself to be Jerk with a Heart of Gold, once he overcomes his own bitterness and realizes just how good Babe is for his master.
- Narm Charm: It's a movie about a talking pig that becomes a sheepdog. But holy hell, is it cute and heartwarming.
- One-Scene Wonder: A rather infamous example, involving the Spoiled Brat granddaughter who screams upon seeing her grandfather's homemade dollhouse and complains that it wasn't the one from TV.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- Before becoming known for playing Agent Smith and Lord Elrond years later, Hugo Weaving voice-acted Rex.
- The Hoggett's son-in-law is played by Paul Goddard who is better known to sci-fi fans as Stark from Farscape.
- Special Effects Failure:
- There are times when you can tell the sheep are either animatronics or if they're in groups, just tied together with Velcro.
- More like Editing Failure: the shot of Babe right after he completes the routine is very obviously rewound and looped.
- Signature Line: Right at the end, from Hoggett: "That'll do, pig. That'll do."
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: As this video
points out, from Duchess's pov, she was being perfectly reasonable scratching Babe when he was in her territory (cats are notoriously territorial animals) and sleeping in her spot, and then Mr. Hoggett kicks her out in the rain shortly after wild dogs were seen in the area and killed one of his sheep! Granted none of this was Babe's fault and her telling him the Awful Truth was indeed spiteful but it does make her actions slightly more understandable. - Values Dissonance: Not in the movie, but the original book The Sheep-Pig repeatedly uses the word "bitch" in its literal meaning, a female dog, to describe Fly. Given how tainted that word has become by its offensive slang meaning, it's hard to imagine a more recent book using it so freely.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: After a while, you really forget that it's animatronics (and CG muzzle replacement) as opposed to real animals speaking. Not surprisingly, the work handled by Rhythm & Hues and Jim Henson's Creature Shop earned the team an Academy Award for their efforts.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's a U rated heartwarming film about talking animals...but also shows those animals have existential crisis's over their mortality, and shows the death of innocent animals on screen, with blood shown.
- The Woobie:
- Hoggett during the Christmas scene when his spoiled granddaughter rejects the dollhouse he spent months building because "I want the house I saw on the television!" And when he's at the sheepdog trials with Babe in tow. You can see the effort it takes for him to just put one foot in front of the other when an entire town is laughing at him. Even his wife had lost faith in him at that point.
- Fly when her pups are being given away. She'd earlier stated that this was something she was prepared for, but you can see how much it hurts her to let them go.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/Babe
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