Babe: Pig in The City - Plot

Plot

Shortly after the events of the previous film, Farmer Arthur Hoggett and Babe are famous. Esme Hoggett, his wife, embraces their fame but Arthur wants to tend to the farm. While Arthur is fixing the water pump in the well the next morning, Babe tries to help but he steps on the pump, countering the balance and Arthur goes up, jamming his fingers in the winch, the pump falls off and Arthur comes crashing back down into the water where he lets go of the rope and the pump's stand crushes him. After his accident, Esme tries to take over the farm but two men come from the bank one day, telling them how the farm hasn't paid the rent and are a week behind. Esme rushes to Arthur, remembering a letter about sheep-herding. If they do it, they will get a generous appearance fee and they will be able to keep the farm. They leave on a plane that very day. A confused sniffer dog at the airport in the city starts barking to get rewarded and they strip search Esme and X-Ray Babe. They miss their next flight and are stranded, unable to go forward or back.

A man gives her the address to a hotel where he says she can stay. Esme finds the hotel and finds out that the landlady there has taken in stray animals to protect them. Esme goes out to call Arthur and Babe is kidnapped by the landlady's uncle, Fugly Floom, an elderly clown who performs in hospitals for children. The orangutan, Thelonius, and the apes, Bob, Zootie and Easy, who are dressed in human clothes, are loyal to Fugly whom they call 'Himself'. When a panicked Esme and Landlady talk to him, he tells Esme that Babe has escaped and she leaves to search for him but is arrested after she causes an uproar with a motorcycle gang. Babe chooses to perform for the local children's hospital with the apes, hoping to earn money to save the farm. Floom serves Babe for dinner and, after being pulled back by his braces, is told it is too rare. Babe crawls off the plate and runs across the room to try and talk to Thelonius but, after Floom falls over Babe and into a cannon and sets off a fire, the show ends in disaster. Floom is later taken to the hospital because he is ill. The concerned Landlady stays by his side and leaves all the animals alone in the hotel unprotected. Thelonius broods over his ill master, the three chimpanzees leave to find food. Babe follows them and mentions his sheep herding skills. Bob uses Babe as a decoy to distract two malicious dogs guarding an alleyway while continue their search. Frightened, Babe runs away, but the spike keeping the dogs chained up breaks free and the dogs give chase throughout the city. Babe loses one in a junkyard but is still pursued by the bull terrier with the spiked collar. The dog rams into Babe, gnashing his teeth at his throat. Babe tumbles from the bridge into the river, the bull terrier missed his throat and got Babe's collar. He leaps after him off the bridge but the spike that held him in place in the alley gets caught in the rungs of the bridge and he dangles from the bridge, hung low enough so that his head is submurged by water. Babe swims to the hotel then, after careful consideration, chooses to rescue the bull terrier from drowning. This earns him the respect of all the animals and the loyalty of the once-dangerous bull terrier.

Babe allows the strays into the hotel and Zootie goes into labor and gives birth to twins. Ferdinand, who has been trying to find Babe after he left the farm, is finally able to reach him. The animals sing Farmer Hoggett's song "I'd sing you a morning". Hortense (a nosey neighbor), hearing the song in animal howls and shrieks, realizes that the hotel is filled with animals and calls the officials to dispose of them. They arrive as the animals are celebrating and grab them, shoving them in sacks. Bob hides Zootie as they grab him and Easy's tape player is stolen and thrown into a sack that makes him chase after it and get caught. Zootie is found and taken. Cats and dogs are seized and Thelonius, sitting with his goldfish bowl, is nabbed in a net. He drops his bowl and the goldfish lies on the floor, suffocating. Babe sees it and rushes in as the mice beg him to help. A man hooks a leash around his neck and hauls him away. They reach the bottom of the stairs, Babe writhing in the man's grip. Ferdinad, seeing what's happening flies into the man who is knocked into a table and frees Babe. The vase on the table soars upwards and shatters on the landing. Babe canters through it, leaving footprints as he goes. He scoops the fish up in his mouth (much to the disgust of the mice) and flings him into the river. The fish gives a relieved sigh and thanks Babe. The man comes in and Babe attempts to jump out of the window but the man grabs the leash. Babe dangles over the pavement, swinging from the leash. Tug, the monkey who stole Esme's suitcase at the start of the film, jumps on the man knocking him out of the window and into the river. Babe struggles from his leash and follows Tug and Ferdinad to the truck where the animals are being put in.

Flealick, the wheelchair confined puppy, seizes a woman by her trouser leg which gets caught in the door of the van. The van drives off with Flealick clinging to it. Babe tells him to let go but he doesn't hear him. The van careens round a corner and the trousers rip, sending Flealick flying into a dustbin. Babe gets him out and, to Ferdinad's horror, he, Flealick and Tug set off to find Esme Hoggett and the animals. They find the animals in an animal prison. They sneak in at night and free the animals from their cages. They are about to leave when they find Thelonius dressing. When asked he claims that he is indecent unless he is dressed. As he pulls up his braces, Ferdinad grows impatient. He is about to leave when a man locks the door that Babe opened to get out. They are trapped. While everybody frets, Babe sees a skylight leading out and has an idea.

Meanwhile, Esme Hoggett tells her story before a judge, the man who told her of the hotel, and is set free because the judge has grown up on a farm and has a soft spot for pigs. The man/judge clears her name by banging his gavel and yelling "Case dismissed!", and when Esme is done, he smiles at her in the end. She returns to the hotel and finds it empty. She ventures up the stairs, walking over the shattered vase on the landing. She turns back and bends down to look at the hoof marks left by Babe. Her dress splits down the back and Esme gasps. "Pig!" she whispers and creeps up the stairs, her dress torn down the seam. She comes to the room where Babe went and finds the landlady, clutching her uncle's clown costume. She tels Esme that her uncle died from an illness and Hortense turned the animals in. As Esme's only dress is ruined, the Landlady lends her uncle's clown costume(which are the only clothes that fit her)— barrel like blue trousers held up with trouser braces that jangle and squeak as she walks and a shirt with a large red joke bow tie — and set off across the river. Esme pounds on the door until Hortense answers then asks savagely: "Where are our animals?". The animals made a pyrimaid to climb up and reach the skylight and clambered out onto a pipe, leading across a car park to a hospital and ballroom. Esme and the landlady use a two-seater clown bike and ride to the hospital after told by Hortense where the animals are. Esme clings to the back of an ambulance and swerves round a fountain, speeding into the car park. Flealick, who got lost along the way with the others, rushes over to them, yapping. The women follow him to a door to a kitchen. A man outside, eating a burger, sees Esme and laughs at her. Esme asks if he's seen the animals. He mocks her by asking what kind of animals. "A pig, cats, dogs, monkeys... that sort of thing?" She grins sheepishly. There's a shatter of plates from inside the kitchen and they rush in to investigate (which the film revealed that when the Babe and the animals were down the elevator to find their way out right to their humans, they are caught by one of the chefs who sees them while caring a stack of plates and accidentally drops them, alerting the other chefs and waiters).

The chef leads them in and Esme pushes past him. He seizes her as scores of animals race through the kitchen, heading for the ballroom where a banquet in honour of the hospital is being held. Several other chefs and waiters in tuxedos and bow ties grab Esme and try to keep her out. She struggles against them and gasps as Babe dashes past. Esme wrestles herself free and darts after him. The chef seizes her by her elastic braces and she rushes after Babe. She stops by the two way opening doors as the braces hold her back. The chefs all grab the braces and haul her off her feet and she flies backwards, tumbling into the chefs and waiters. Esme frees herself and she and the landlady burst into the banquet shooting fire extinguishers to keep the waiters away. All the animals except Thelonious scarper for cover. When Babe is kidnapped by a chef, the Landlady tells the chef "That's not your pig!" but another chef, who with another one, grabs her and pulls her away, telling her "He is my pig now." and she calls Esme warning her "Esme! The chef got your pig!" Esme is running from chefs behind her screeches to a halt as there is one in front of her. She sprays him with the fire-extinguisher then runs. As more come in front she realises she's trapped. Seeing this, she climbs to the top of the balcony and ties the elastic braces from the costume to a streamer from the chandelier. She exclaims, "I am Esme Cordelia Hoggett", as she pulls the knot finally, "And I have come for my Arthur's Pig!" People stare on in horror as she adjuts the braces and grabs the trousrs. She looks down at the chef then jumps, her braces taughtening and bouncing her back up. She misses Babe and grabs the chef's hat instead. She regains her composure on the balcony of the mezzanine and spots the chef again. Clutching the trousers she runs around the edge. The braces lift her off her feet and she swings down, missing him once again. She starts circling the room, boncing up and down uncontrolably. She pushes a desert trolley under the chef and he drops Babe and crashes into a table. She swings dangerously near a butler in a tuxedo, bow tie and glasses who is shielding a tottering tower of champagne glasses and, screaming, she rams into him. He falls onto a table and it collapses beneath him. Bob and Zooty have climbed on top of the chandelier.

Esme swings off, her shoes have fallen off and she clings to the balcony. Panting and clinging to the braces for support, she hears a strange noise and looks down. Beneath the clown trousers, an inflatable, flesh-colored suit is rapidly expanding like a balloon. The waiter gets up and sees this. He looks into his hand and sees that, as he was falling, he accidentally pulled off a tab on the suit marked "DO NOT PULL". He realises and looks up as the trousers rip, falling off. Thelonius clambers up the walls to the balcony. The braces are attached to the hoop which somehow has attached itself to the balloon. Esme tries again and again. Thelonius clambers onto he back and stretches the braces more to help her get lower to Babe. More chefs remove their jackets and tie their braces to the streamers. Esme swings down at the same time as the chefs and they nearly collide in the middle. Esme knocks the waiter who is holding Babe over and snatches Babe back. Ferdinad squawks with glee as Esme beams at Babe. Suddenly the chandelier gives a groan. The weight of the animals, the chefs and Esme is too much and the cable snaps and the chandelier plummets to the ground. Esme screams as they drop with it. The chefs braces snap and they crash to the ground. Esme riccochetes off the ground, using the balloon as a spacehopper. She rolls over, dropping Babe and she gets tangled in her braces. Thelonius tries to help her as Babe tries to find Zooty's second baby. He spots it as it falls from the broken chandelier cord. He alerts Thelonius who catches it in time. Zooty thank him but Thelonius thanks "the Pig."

All in a happy end, the hotel is restored to its true self with the animals moving in the farm as well as Thelonius, Arthur checks one last time to check if they have clean water, he smiles as the water pours into the trough. Holding his braces he looks at Babe and, once again, says, "That'll do, Pig. That'll do.