The UW-Madison Center for the Humanities is honored to sponsor the Wisconsin Film Festival and this showing of Babe: Pig in the City.
About the film: Join the crew from the essential film podcast Blank Check for a special screening of Mad Max mastermind George Miller’s cult classic of family cinema. In this much darker sequel to the surprise Oscar-nominated original, Babe the pig is stranded in a scary metropolis, far from cozy Hoggett Farm. Hiding out in an animal-friendly hotel, Babe deals with streetwise chimpanzees and hostile Bull Terriers, all while dodging animal control—it’s tough if you’re a pig alone in the city, dear ones. Boasting an astounding visual design, supreme technical mastery, and action setpieces to rival Fury Road, this now-beloved marvel whiffed upon its original release. One of the few to recognize its genius in the moment was Roger Ebert, who hailed Pig in the City as “an unending parade of wonderments and visual delights, linked to a story that is Dickensian in its richness of character and the boldness of its villains. The movie is filled with wonders large and small: little gags at the side of the frame and big laughs in the center. It is in no way just a ‘children’s movie,’ but one that extends the imagination of everyone who sees it.” That’ll do. Following the film, Blank Check co-host Griffin Newman, producer Ben Hosley, associate producer Marie Bardi-Salinas, and researcher JJ Bersch (UW MA ’16, PhD ’22) will crack open an all-new dossier on Miller’s still-underrated gem. On their selection, the Blank Check team says: “A few months into the pandemic—and a year before our Madison-based researcher JJ joined our team—Blank Check released an episode covering Babe: Pig in the City—a “blank check” movie if there ever were one. Now, in our first-ever Midwest live show, we invite you to join us as the hometown hero walks us through the true stories behind one of the wildest sequels of the 1990s—or any other decade.” (MK)
About the Wisconsin Film Festival: Since 1999, the Wisconsin Film Festival has curated, promoted, and exhibited programs showcasing the art and the history of world cinema. Currently presented under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Communication Arts, the Festival supports UW’s teaching, research, and public service mission by exposing the campus and the greater Madison community to films and filmmakers from Wisconsin and beyond. As cinema is an essential art form that enriches the human experience and enhances one’s knowledge of a variety of cultures, the Festival seeks to create a strong sense of community through curating a vast body of films and through the creation of gatherings before and after screenings that welcome diverse communities.