Babe (1995)

A parentless piglet named Babe is chosen for a "guess the weight" contest booth at a county fair. The winning farmer, Arthur Hoggett, brings him home and allows him to stay with a female border collie named Fly and her pups.


A duck named Ferdinand, posing as a rooster in order to keep from being eaten, wakes the farm each morning by crowing. He persuades Babe to help him destroy the alarm clock because it threatens his mission. Although successful, they wake the Hoggetts' cat, Duchess, and all three accidentally destroy the living room, leaving them covered in paint. Fly's mate Rex orders Babe to stay away from both Ferdinand (now a fugitive) and the house. When Fly's puppies are put up for sale, Babe asks if he can call her ‘Mom’.


Christmas time brings a visit from the Hoggetts' relatives. Babe is almost chosen for the Christmas dinner but a duck is picked instead after Arthur remarks to his wife Esme that Babe may bring a prize for ham at the next County Fair. The day after Christmas, Babe alerts the farmer to some sheep rustlers. The following day, Hoggett sees Babe sort the hens, separating the brown ones from the white ones. Impressed, he takes the pig to the fields and tells Babe instead of Rex to herd the sheep. Encouraged by an elder ewe named Maa, the sheep cooperate, but Rex sees Babe's actions as an insult to sheepdogs and eventually confronts his mate for "putting ideas in Babe's head". Fly's right front leg is injured and Arthur's right hand is bitten by Rex while trying to intervene. Rex is then chained to the dog house and sedated.


It is now Babe's job to herd the sheep. One morning, Babe is wakened by their cries and witnesses three feral dogs retaliating them. Though he scares the dogs away, Maa has been mortally injured. Arthur arrives to see Babe standing over Maa with blood on his snout and thinks that he killed her. As he prepares to shoot Babe, Fly tries talking to the sheep for the first time to find out what happened. She distracts Arthur (and spares Babe) by barking long enough for Esme to come out and say she has heard from the police that neighboring farms have also had sheep killed by the dogs.


When Esme leaves on a trip for a few days, Arthur enters Babe in the sheepdog trials under the name "Pig". That evening, it is so wet outside that Arthur lets Babe in the house along with Fly. A hostile Duchess soon scratches Babe when he attempts to speak to her, and she is confined outside. Duchess is later allowed back into the house and takes vengeance on Babe by feigning contrition, but then devastates him by revealing that humans eat pigs. Fly also confirms this.


Next morning Fly suddenly discovers that Babe has run away. She and Rex alert Arthur and all three go searching for him. Rex eventually finds him and Arthur brings him back home. Babe refuses to eat, despite encouragement from Rex, who has now softened his attitude and calls him 'Son'. Arthur gives him a drink from a baby bottle and sings "If I Had Words" to him, and eventually jigs for him. This restores Babe's faith in the farmer and he begins eating.


At the trials the sheep refuse to listen to Babe and Rex runs back to the farm to find out what to do. The sheep give him a secret password and make Rex promise to treat them better. He gets back to find everyone is laughing at the farmer for entering a pig to the contest but, using the password Rex passes on to him, Babe convinces the sheep to do what he asks and is acclaimed by the crowd. Babe sits down quietly next to Arthur, who tells him, "That'll do, Pig. That'll do."