I’m just going to say it.  At the end of the movie Babe, I tear up.  Every time.  I don’t cry exactly.  I’m not a big one for crying.  But I definitely get watery when Mr. Hoggett and Babe have just proven everyone wrong at the herding contest and renewed their deep faith  in each other and Mr. Hoggett looks down at Babe and says “That’ll do, pig.  That’ll do.”  That makes me misty eyed.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.  For those who haven’t seen the movie, Babe is a small pig and Mr. Hoggett (despite his porcine name) is James Cromwell.  It’s a simple fable about a farmer who trains a pig to herd sheep.  (I would love to see a screenwriter try to pitch that logline to a Hollywood producer.)  Actually, in the end it is about respect — Babe only manages to do what Mr. Hoggett wants because he is kind to all the animals on the farm and earns their trust.

Oh, and the animals talk.  Hey, it’s a kids movie after all, though not in a cloying overly-cutesy way.  There is a little bit of grit here (as is the case in the best childrens’ lit), particularly in the portrayal of the realities of being an animal on a farm.  After all, pigs are meant to be eaten.

Writer-director George Miller has had an interesting career trajectory in the movies.  After all, this is the man who created the Mad Max films (and unleashed Mel Gibson on the world).  But instead of becoming a Hollywood action director, he followed up with an Oscar nomination for writing Lorenzo’s Oil, a straight-up tearjerker in which Nick Nolte and Susan Saradon attempt to save their son from a rare disease.  From there, he moved on to Babe (and another writing Oscar nom) and Happy Feet (which won an Oscar for best animated flick).  Happy Feet, to its credit, also acknowledges that it is no picnic to be an animal in our world and includes a sequence that probably made it impossible for me to ever again enjoy the penguin house at the zoo.  Not many folks in the movie business manage to transition from violent action to adult drama to talking penguins.  Kudos to George for that feat.

But enough about Miller.  Let’s talk about me.  I have a strong attraction to talking animal movies.  Not animated movies, per se, though I’m perfectly happy to watch those too.  No, I like live-action films where the animals actually talk to each other and to people — layer on some CGI to make their furry little mouths move and you’ve got me hooked.

Case in point — I just watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua with my kids.  (There are certain things that are made significantly easier by having children; one of them is the ability to see talking animal movies without embarrassment.)  Yeah, I enjoyed it.

Also, take the movie Cats and Dogs.  A silly little flick about cats and dogs fighting for control of the world.  When the evil cat genius lifts his little paw and declares “Cats rule!”, well, that’s a classic moment in cinema for me.

Growing up, Oh Heavenly Dog was one of my favorites.  How could you go wrong with Benji as voiced by Chevy Chase?  Pure movie magic.

Why do I like talking animal movies?  Maybe I think animals have more interesting things to say than people.  Maybe it’s just because they’re cuter than all get out.  Maybe I always wanted to work with animals and couldn’t get through basic biology because of the dissection requirement and I still have a little childish part of me that thinks I’d rather talk to animals than cut them open.  Maybe, on an elemental level, I just really think it is funny to have an iguana crack jokes with a rat.

But enough about me.  Back to Babe.

This is a great fairy tale.  It should be disturbing — these critters should be going all Animal Farm on the Hoggetts — but instead it strikes just the right balance between moralizing and entertaining.  The people in the movie don’t say much, but watching James Cromwell dance a jig for Babe to get him to drink from a bottle is worth the price of admission alone.

And you get talking animals!  Lots of talking animals!  Pigs, cows, horses, dogs, sheep, geese, one crazy duck and the most adorable singing mice who kill with their rendition of Blue Moon.

Just be careful.  Babe might make you cry.