Blank Check with Griffin & David - Babe: Pig in the City with Travis McElroy

Episode Date: May 3, 2020

Who is 1998's Babe: Pig in the City for? Is it for kids? Stoners? Four grown adults attempting to navigate a national pandemic? This is the question Travis McElroy (My Brother, My Brother and Me, Adventure Zone, Run: A Doctor Who Fancast) poses to the BC crew this week. We defend and analyze another George Miller death city, robot chimp babies, and why Siskel went out on a high note. That'll do.

blank check with griffin and david blank check with griffin and david don't know what to say or to expect all you need to know is that the name of the show is blank check that'll do podcast that'll do podcast that'll do podcast guys this movie do podcast. That'll do podcast. Guys, this movie's weird. Yeah. Bay Pig in the City? It's a little weird. It's a little odd. Are you sure you watched a different movie?

I watched this whole movie, I know, because I was mouth agape for the solid hour and 35 minutes. My tongue dried off and blew away in the wind like sand. That's weird because I just Googled Babe Pig in the City and the top result is having a normal one. I don't think this is a weird movie. I think this is a pretty straight down the middle. This is like a standard meat and potatoes movie.

Oh, yeah. I saw that the MPA rated this movie as regular yeah yes normal film for normal people right all right this movie makes sense to me can i ask i i want to ask right off the bat because we just have to like get through the controversy of this movie we're not going to do like an intro or anything or like who i am we're going to do all of that but first i just want to address the big controversy, because obviously there's like there's a big debate within the film community about Babe Pig in the City. Uh-huh. What's that?

Is this the best film featuring Mickey Rooney playing a character named Fugly Flume? Is this the number one? Whoa, man, that's so tough. Because I loved his work in Deep Blue Sea. Yeah, I was about to say he didn't do that in Bugsy. I could have sworn. No, you're thinking of Fugsly.

Yeah, Fugsly Flume. You know what? I'm going to say it's top five at least. It's definitely top five. It's an easy top five. And hey, it's tough to make the five uh hello everybody my name is griffin newman my name is david sims and this is blank check with griffin and david it's a podcast about filmographies directors who have massive success early on in their careers and given a series of blank checks make whatever crazy password

products they want and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they go to the city baby yeah and this is a new series on the films of george miller it is called mad pod fury cast and today we're talking about his most bug nuts movie which is i mean that's saying something it's saying he has never made a not-Bug Nuts movie. No. Correct? Correct. Right? Right?

What's his most normal film? Lorenzo's Oil. The Witches of Eastwick? I don't like... The Bug Nuts. I don't know. Yeah. But this is in every way his most Bug Nuts movie.

It's called Bay Pig in the City. It is the number one top top rated film on IMDb About pigs in cities Yes And joining us today From my brother, my brother and me From the Adventure Zone Ladies and gentlemen

Travis McElroy Hi It's me, Travis McElroy I disliked this film oh boy while also enjoying watching it thank you now you i don't know if that's possible i had a strange dichotomy going on in my brain you made you made a mistake right off the bat you texted me right after you finished watching this movie yes i believe your text was fuck you mr newman i believe that was true yes i believe that was true well here's what hey fellas

let's get real for a minute i tried to watch this film with my three and a half year old and that was the mistake that was the mistake huge mistake you need to be at least 21 to see this film i think i know i've seen the first one i think perhaps i've never seen this film and i was like oh babe a fun family romp let us enjoy it and then the first five minutes uh cromwell almost dies and i was like you know what babe let's uh let's put you on pause there my daughter and i are going to watch some guys and miller's like let's zoom in on the wound though like let's get closer theresa and i my wife and i were both just staring at the tv and theresa goes did he die and i was like i i don't know which which i did not realize would be a refrain echoed numerous times. Sure.

Did he die? Is the question you never stop asking in this film. Yes. Without a death. Without a death. Right. There's another question you keep asking during this film, which is,

am I dead? Like every moment you're watching it. Is this the last moment? Is this the last moment of breath as the neurons flood my brain with these weird images that don't seem to match up into any kind of thing. But now I'm seeing a weird fever dream of, I don't know, perhaps a pig in the city. Yes. But is this just my dying energy that my brain is trying to make into some sense of normalcy? But is this just my dying energy that my brain is trying to make into some sense of normalcy?

You feel like Fleelight out in the field chasing butterflies before he's called back to Earth. Which, frankly, the fact that that wasn't a death made me mad. That actively angered. Because his life seemed so much better on the other side, frankly. It looked incredible. It looked fucking unbelievable. His life looked so tight or should i say his afterlife compared to his shitty life um yeah you use the word fever dream travis it is a word that has come up frequently over the course of doing these george miller movies

uh because every single one of his movies feels like a fever dream uh yeah but here's here's a question that we might struggle to answer throughout the course of this whole episode sure who is this movie for great question that was the question that financiers asked uh when it was released certainly because ostensibly this is a children's movie well right that was kind of the miscalculation. Yes, it was rated G. Let's see. It was originally rated PG.

I don't think it was rated PG. It was rated PG originally. No, no, no, no, no. They rated it PG. Then they thought that would be disastrous for their box office. So the ads and the posters started going out with PG. Then they re-edited it. They took out several seconds of quote dog violence oh my god that is a great metal band name

yeah dude and then it was re-rated g but i think it should have stayed pg yeah they dropped off like 10 grand to every mpa member's house that day, right? I mean, they're like, come on, make it a G. There's an argument that this film should be the first NC-10. Yeah. There is a moment, not to jump around, but the moment with the dog hanging

by a chain in the water as the other animals like look, but then turn away saying, look away, honey, look away. And it's just like, this is,

and I don't know if I can curse on your show, but that, that mo, even if the dog survives or whatever, the imagery of all of that is so messed up. And I just want to restate that is the dog violence that made the cut. Yes. They were like, gee, for this general audiences.

So, I mean, this is the basic overview of the creation of this movie. Just to hit hit the big points. George Miller reads Babe as a book in the 80s. He goes, this is lovely. I would love to make a movie of this someday. Yes. I believe the movie is, the book is called The Sheep Pig. Yes.

And then it was retitled later with Babe. Well, Cash Grab. Yes. Right. Yeah. But yes, he reads a cute British children's book in the 80s about a pig that's a sheep dog and he's like, he files it away. Right.

And the main reason he files it away is for the technology to catch up, to feel like both with CGI and animatronics, this film is doable. When he finally is... Well, he jumped the gun on that. Well, so then in the early 90s, when he realizes film is is producible for the first time uh he's sort of smarting from the failure of lorenzo's oil which was a flop and which is of eastwick which was him working within a studio system and feeling really chewed up by it and i think he was sort of the the the mythology is that he was sort of cautious about i've had two films one that was a difficult experience to make

the other one that was poorly received by and large right uh this feels really risky for me to now suddenly make a talking pig movie when i'm the mad max guy i don't know if i want this on my reputation i don't know if i can survive another flop. So he takes Chris Noonan, who is one of his, uh, protégés within the Australian film world and sort of had worked with him on Vietnam and things like that. Right. And goes, you should make this movie. This is your first feature. Uh, and the film gets made, uh, and by accounts, from the moment they start watching the dailies, George Miller starts seeing that the movie is working and regrets that he let someone else direct it.

And so the entire production of Babe is the director fighting with the producer over who is the ultimate creative say in the movie. And I believe they never got over it. I believe they hate each other to this day. They hate each other to this day and constantly still talk shit about each other. Um, and like, I can't imagine why that sounds like such a pleasant working environment.

I know. But then against all odds, this movie comes out in like August and becomes a hit. And then defying all expectations becomes a fucking like eight-time oscar nominee including best picture and best director yes i didn't remember that holy babe made 250 million dollars worldwide it was nominated for several oscars and including directing and writing and all that it won the national society of film critics award for best film like it was the critical favorite of that year if that makes sense much like mad max fury road it was like

this weird sort of like very on its face populist commercial studio film that somehow became the critical consensus choice for like the film right literati right like the critics that year were like the movies we really dig are like leaving las vegas safe bay like that that was where they were rallying yeah did george miller like get credit for for that was it like it's because of you that this was a huge success well i mean who knows i mean he got a screenplay and producing oscar nominations it's not like he wasn't his name was on the movie but he didn't direct it but i think this is a lot of the bad blood between them is i mean and apparently right they were fighting from like week one of production but then when chris noonan a first-time filmmaker gets his best director nom

for this movie which is so insane that a first-time filmmaker got a best director nomination for a children's film released by a studio in august then i think george miller started shit talking him more publicly because he was kind of like being like hey you know georgie porgy had something to do with this his big line is i served him that movie on a plate uh yes i believe he literally said that right that he sort of took the movie all the way up to the starting line and then felt like that's this is his interpretation of it uh and then was on set every day and that for chris noon to get credit was uh unjust and thus started the bad blood between them now chris noonan has made exactly that's the kind of thing you should say with like regret and bitterness not with pride i served it to him

on a plate like well it seems like you fucked up uh you're right yeah exactly george uh it's true that chris newton as you're about to say griffin i think has only made one film since it was his beatrix potter by a pick miss potter 10 years not very good 11 years later yeah so and now so and now we are 10 plus years after that and he still hasn't made another film. He has a couple credits as, like, consultant. Yeah. So he hasn't, not only not directed, but he has not worked on other films. He has worked on other films as a consultant, like, two. Okay.

Since 2006. Yeah, and he's done a couple of, like, TV episodes in Australia. I think that's it. But has not directed another film, got nominated for Best Director for his first film, one follow-up, out. So George Miller was really doing the victory laps for

this movie. He became like the spokesperson for Babe, and he started taking all the credit for it. Okay. And that's just important to know going into Babe Pig in the City that that chip is on the shoulder. Because. Where he's like, I'll show you.

That's the thing. The energy of Babe Pig in the City is I want to prove once and for all that I'm the guy responsible for Babe working. Well, that's the thing. This film reeks of a lack of restriction. Right? Where it's just like. Sure. There had to be like numerous times where any normal

person watching like the dailies i'd be like hey i think this is real fucked up but the first movie was a successful and critical hit so absolutely right and he like has a strong track record at that point he's more of an auteur than chris noonan is he's got the reputation right the first movie's a hit and a fucking like oscar nominee so they were just like i don't know who knows why the first babe work do more of whatever that was but but here's the thing here's the thing babe does not demand a sequel no the ending of babe is entirely definitive he has achieved his goal perfect sheep pig right and you know what david i would say it doesn't demand a sequel as evidenced by the sequel where it is literally nothing happens well but it's so much this movie so exactly this movie is great it just makes no sense as a sequel to babe that

would be my take i think i'm sorry david this movie is not great great masterpiece let me say travis travis you're gonna you have a fight on your hands here well okay so let me tell you because listen we could talk all day about the bonkers situations and we will but like structurally there there is also some problems in the filmmaking itself i believe which is the the one that really stands out to my mind and i think it's because david you have the background of fugly bloom behind you yeah yeah we stand you know and so what we see is fugly locks babe in a trunk and mutters some words as though they could not afford to pay mickey rooney enough to speak words.

Mickey might not have been in a speaking mood that day. I don't know. So he mutters some stuff. Hard cut to a performance in a children's wing of a hunter. No explanation. We do not see. We hear like Babe say like, hey, you told me that if I did this, I'd get money. And we cut out any kind of context

that might explain to me what has happened i assumed fugly bloom and maybe i'm supposed to believe this was going to eat that pig sure but no part of the act instead he uses the pig which he has just discovered in his circus act that he's performing. Could you imagine being a kid and witnessing that? That would rule. That show is amazing. The kids are loving it. And already painted on the set is and pig. How,

how long had the other, was there another pig that died just before this and they need to replace? What, how do they already have an act work? What is happening? How long? Was there another pig that died just before this and they need to replace? How do they already have an act work? What is happening? They're performing at a hospital. Is that right? Because they're performing to an audience that is all wearing medical gowns.

Right. But they're also old people. It's sick kids and old people. Sure. It's the same hospital that we see later that all the animals are taken to because that's why the kid recognizes Thelonious. They are back in the same hospital that apparently within this hospital there is like a Galahal and

an animal experimentation wing and a children's wing. All in the same. Now listen, you tell me there's a children's wing in a normal hospital? Totally buy it. You tell me there is maybe a gala hall in a household? Sure.

But all those things and the animal experimentation? Did you guys notice how the city was like all the cities? Oh, you mean Metropolis? The city of Metropolis? Yeah. Yeah, I noticed that, Ben. I just want to read. Let's backtrack.

I want to, Ben. I just want to read. Let's backtrack. I want to read here. This is the downtown skyline of Metropolis, okay? From the Wikipedia, features numerous landmarks such as the World Trade Center, the Sears Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, the IDS Center, the MetLife Building, the Sydney Opera House, the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Furnishedum Berlin, Big Ben, Red Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Christ the Redeemer statue, among others. Good job on the IDS building from Minneapolis making it on that list, by the way. Why? Because it's cool. It is not, David. It's rules.

It's not cool. How dare you give credit to that? Because they're also on some kind of like Venetian canal. Correct. Don't just say correct. Like that's a cool thing that doesn't need explaining. And they're also in like Santa Monica because they got a beach. Yeah.

And they, yeah, that is 1000%. That is Venice Beach. I 1000%. That is Venice Beach. I mean, that is Venice Beach. Yes. Here's the thing. This is a film that posits that no explanation is needed for anything. At the beginning of the film, we are led

to, well, not even the beginning because we could go all the way back, but at one point in the film, we are led to believe that there is, is like for some reason hotels are perhaps by law not allowed to have any animals in them to the point where like the animal whatever capturing

group the worst people in the world they show up like it's a fucking swat thing that guy in the puffy suit like the bite suit. They kind of have a bad zoo boy vibe. Oh, 100% they're bad zoo boys. They're the worst.

I think this is the key distinction, Travis, is that Babe is, oh, huh, it's a children's film produced by the Mad max guy you can see sort of his sensibility but there's a different director here there's a different storytelling style and it's like a fairy tale it's set on a farm it has a simple sort of like hero's journey we can grapple with this but this is very much a children's film directed by the man who directed Mad Max. And it's got the exact same kind of world building, which is stuff is thrown in your face and you are left to sort of extrapolate what you need to from it. Like it is very Fury Road in sort of the way that you just have to roll with the punches.

Exactly. Compared to Fury Road. Yes, very much so. Like it is a world rich with backstory, but we are privy to none of it. And that is, in many ways, fine with me, an adult, whose brain is already broken

in so many ways. But for a child, and it's just like, hey, just accept the idea of drug dogs, my three-year-old child. And I guess this woman being invasively inspected. Well, I mean, not to jump ahead here, but this movie was such a failure upon its release,

was largely critically trashed, and was a massive, massive flop. And then its reputation has grown, but almost exclusively with adults now. Like, this is not one of those movies like Willy Wonka, where like when it came out, it wasn't a big hit. And then later, both children and adults came to love it. This movie's reputation has been saved by the fact that adults have started watching it. I think no kids like this movie still to this day.

I don't know what a kid would get out of this movie except for nightmares. Nightmares, David. They would get nightmares. It is a complete failure. They would dream about the hanged dog. Now, Griff, did you see this film when it came out?

I did not. I did not see this film until probably about five years ago on Netflix. I did not see it when it came out. We will have done or will be soon doing

a babe episode on Patreon, but I re-watched both of these movies back-to-back last night because I really wanted the cognitive dissonance of these two films next to each other. Yes.

Especially since... That's funny because I watched Babe, Pig in the City and then Whiplash back-to-back just so I could be able to compare the two. Also a good Whiplash.

Yeah, Whiplash, one of the better Whiplashes. But I forgot, A a that this movie literally starts like five minutes after the original babe ends but immediately you can tell you're in a different fucking movie um yes but but re-watching babe uh when the first babe came out i was uh six or seven years old i think six years old 95 and uh i was uh terrified of death and babe was this movie that everyone loved my mom was like we got to go see this thing people say it's the best kids movie in years and she took me to see it and death looms so large over that entire film that re-watching it, I remembered so vividly how much I hated that film in the theaters. I don't remember a death looming large. That's interesting. Yeah. I was going to say more so than Pig in the City. Well, this is the difference. I think as a child,

weirdly, I would have had less triggers with Pig in the City, which has this like very ominous tone, city which has this like very ominous tone but babe the death is very explicit like it's so much about what is the purpose of a pig you're going to be eaten he's constantly avoiding being slaughtered his mother gets killed at the beginning it's kind of bambi-ish in that sort of sense that it's like very much about the immediate threats within a very small world like the farm is pretty idyllic but death is constantly around the corner whereas big. Like the farm is pretty idyllic, but death is constantly around the corner. Whereas Big Pig in the City is welcome to death city. Everything is death.

If I may, there is a very troubling existential moment in Big Pig in the City, which I want to discuss. Literally existential, where Babe is being chased by two dogs and the narrator describes what's going on in babe's head where the flashes of his brief life like click through his head and he just stops running and turns around and says why i would like to read the dog knocks him and it's it's basically like every human being's experience of after a while you just get shit on so much that you're like, why am I doing any of this? And it gets knocked in the water.

I'm going to read the direct quote. Yes. Because this is I was thinking during this, like, you know, throwing back to the trivia days of yore. If in a trivia round, in a movie trivia night, someone said, I'm going to read a quote, name the movie. Would anyone guess Babe Pig in the City for this? Something broke beyond the terror. Flickerings. Fragments of his short life.

The random events that delivered him to this. His moment of annihilation. As terror gave way to exhaustion. Babe, you would mute that word for trivia night yeah turn to his attacker his eyes filled with one simple question why jesus fucking christ all right so i want to take it back here what i was going to say is did not see this movie when it came out in theaters because even though i probably was no longer traumatized by the first one, by the point this came out, I still had less fondness for it than most children of my generation. And then on top of it, this one looked bug nuts and everyone hated it.

I was like, skip, easy pass. And then over years and years and years, it started to get more and more of a cold following within 1998 the only two people who really liked it were siskel and ebert and ebert said it was siskel said it was his film of the year it was his film of the year the last year he was alive yeah he named this film of the year and then died he went out on babe pig in the city i mean like a month later ebert was like this movie is great and i think it's better than babe and siskel was like shut the fuck up you pansy it's not only great and better than babe it's the best movie in a year that includes like the thin red line and out of sight and like this is the last movie i ever want to see saving private

ryan like this is my movie this year and then gene siskel dropped the mic on life yeah he did he announced that big in the city was his number one film of 1998 and then left the mortal realm um did you see this when it came out david uh i did and i have very little memory of it and i'm pretty sure i was just a kid who saw movies i was must have been i don't know 12 years old when this came out right 98 yeah yeah yeah yeah and so i was just like yeah sure and i remember seeing it thinking it was stupid but i was also very like anti-sequel at the time you know what i mean i was like it's a sequel those are dumb like you know you know you know original films that's what i like you were destined to become a film critic right you were 12 and so i didn't really think about it much. And then I remember Noah Baumbach programming it with Eyes Wide Shut at the Metrograph like four or five years ago.

When the Metrograph opened, they let him program any double feature he wanted, the Metrograph Theater here in New York. And that was his choice, was Babe Pig in the City on a double feature with Eyes Wide Shut. Right. Two movies about exploring a weird artificial nightmare city as a sort of dark night in the city on a double feature with eyes wide shut. Right. Two movies about exploring a weird artificial nightmare city as a sort of dark night in the soul. And these sort of plucky, like optimistic figures

who think they are in control of their realm, master their domain, dropped into a hostile city and realizing that they are like the naive. They are both babes. Yes, they are babes in the wood. You also could say it's like both movies,

it's about how rich people are bad. Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. All right. I had in my head a memory that this movie was at least weird and I knew its reputation. I have not seen babe since theaters so i do not remember babe very well i remember that it ends with him saying that'll do pig

spoiler alert a slam dunk whoa it is a slam dunk moment yeah right um perhaps one of the most like referenced children's movie moments like since it came out i think everyone under even if they've never seen babe if you say that'll do people like i know what that is i know what that is yes it's part of the cultural lexicon yeah right and a line delivery that earned james cromwell a legendary character actor his only oscar nomination right that isn't disputable and so i remember that i flick on this movie and it begins just to say with uh you know uh babe has is a successful sheepdog they've gotten lots of prizes everything's going great and then babe accidentally drowns and crushes his owner yeah and and here's the thing folks if you haven't seen it you hear that and you're like, well, what happens between there? Nothing. That is the first 30 seconds of them. achieving that like he wants to be a sheep pig that's that's the thing he knows he's made to do

it he he charges at that goal and he figures it out so george miller is like yeah all right kid you figured out what you want to do but unfortunately now you have to live life and life is brutal and like there's tax men and there's prostitutes and there's mickey rooney like there's gonna be people at every corner who are the prostitute who are the prostitutes something's going on with those chimpanzees oh okay i would have accepted the poodle or the poodles the poodle who says that people have taken advantage of her and used her and i think that's what we're supposed to glean from that right that was just i mean as someone who didn't love the original Babe at the time, but knew that everyone else loved it,

seeing the trailer for this movie, A, I think I had a little bit of the thing you did, David, where I was like, ah, sequels, you know, The Manishing Returns, whatever. And then this movie looked from the trailers so much goofier than the first film, which is a very stylized, heightened film, but also has this kind of like austere farm life. It stars a stoic character actor.

It has humans. This movie is like, forget the humans. We are as little as them as possible. Like this is animal first. There's also this distinction where it's like, Babe is a very stylized movie that takes place in a somewhat recognizable world. The performances, the visuals are like heightened.

It has all the George Miller like wide angle lenses and the like Churis girl lighting and the weird fever dream quality. But the story is very, very straightforward. The weird fever dream quality, but the story is very, very straightforward. And nothing that happens in the film is wildly outside of the realm of what could happen in real world. Even when Babe actually, like, herds the dogs. Or the sheep, rather. That's like an impressive animal trick you might see on YouTube these days. And that's the final moment of the first film. And then the second movie starts, and there's this, like,

hero's welcome victory parade for Farmer Hoggett that immediately you can tell you're in a different universe. Like, it suddenly feels like you're in fucking Dr. Seuss land. And there are people skywriting ham, which then gets corrected to champ.

Yes. That's how you skywrite ham. You can start from the middle of the word and then build out. Yeah, you work your way out. That's definitely- You get two planes to do it at the same time. Because what else are you going to do, Griffin?

You start at the 20% mark. You go up to 80. Then you get a second plane and you circle back to zero and to 80 to fill in the rest. The recurring thing in this film that i think kept throwing me is there are there are very few if any anchor points in which one might grab onto to give you some frame of like normalcy because like even in the far like as you said david in in the first one there's a lot more human points right it's like the human world

is normal and then you go to the animals and there's this whole other society that we're learning about whereas in this one not only are the humans also pretty wacky they're like in there is one point where the woman who owns the hotel just leaves for the majority of the movie and it's just like hey this building's now all animals. And it's like, what is happening? It is this thing of like, and this was the thing I remember recognizing when the trailers came up, which it's like,

okay, first of all, it seems like James Cromwell is not in this movie at all. So not only is this film less focused on humans, you're removing the one human who impossibly got an Academy Award nomination for this movie. So already George Miller is like, look, if you loved Babe, you're in good hands. I was the real auteur. I'm going to give you everything you want for pure Babe.

First of all, we're getting rid of the actor you all liked. He's kaput. He's at the bottom of the well 10 minutes in. Not only are we getting rid of him. Was that him? We're mutilating him. Yeah, I just assumed that was Cromwell saying like hey I don't wanna fucking do this

hey uh I did the one pig movie and now I read Cromwell's uh random rules feature from the AV club which was from some years ago and he said uh he seemed like he was very much

team Chris Noonan during the production of Babe that he felt very much team Chris Noonan during the production of Babe. That he felt very protective of Chris Noonan as George Miller was trying to wrestle control of the film. He didn't say that he asked to be in Pig in the City less,

but I could understand how maybe George Miller could feel less inclined to bring him back. And he, to his credit, said George Miller was very pleasant in the second film. I only had a nice experience with him, but I thought he was a real bully on the first movie. Wow. It's so crazy how traumatic that first movie was.

I know. And he's like, I had a great experience. It was a lovely film. I'm so proud of that performance. It was pretty magical. It was six months of my life. It was such a different like work experience than I've had but George Miller was a bully

and the film was kind of terrible from that one perspective can you guys imagine how much different the final action sequence would have been in this movie if it had been Cromwell bouncing around a ballroom like with his inflatable

pants and like his bouncy suspenders and it was just him bouncing from column to column trying to catch that you mean when George Miller essentially remakes the master blaster battle from beyond Thunderdome hell yeah in a high society party

with animals and an old lady hey also once again, just from filmmaking point of view, the smashing into the champagne cups never pays off. It made me so mad. The actress who plays Mrs. Hoggett in this film

was like an Australian sketch comedy sitcom actress. She was 33 years old when filming The First babe what which means she's 35 in this one you're right she you're absolutely right my god that is a no offense to one year younger than me 55 and she was 33 right cromwell was 32 or 33 yeah yeah he's cromwell is like 80 now yes um here's the other thing that's weird and not that important but kind of odd is that christine kavanaugh the voice of chucky yes from rugrats voiced babe in the first babe and this time miller was like get me a different rug rat.

Get me Tommy. Get me E.G. Daly. Like, because Christine Kavanaugh asked for too much money. Is that the reason? I don't know. She also kind of half retired after that because I feel like she stopped playing Chucky as well around this time. She dies like 2012. I always thought she died earlier because she sort of moved away from working. I don't know if it was money. I don't she dies like 2012 I always thought she died earlier because she sort of moved away from working I don't know if it was money I don't know if it was just a career shift thing because her leaving Rugrats as well

is kind of weird but there is that thing aside from the fact that you're like getting rid of Cromwell there's also the thing that the first movie and you're changing the voice of Babe right you're like disrupting the main two performances from the first film, and you're changing the voice of Babe, right? You're like disrupting the main two performances from the first film that people connected to emotionally.

The first Babe kind of operates on like George Orwell animal farm logic, where it's like the animals are never doing anything that an animal couldn't do in real life. If you were a human witnessing this from the outside, you would not hear their dialogue, that an animal couldn't do in real life. If you were a human witnessing this from the outside, you would not hear their dialogue, but their physical behavior would seem normal, and it's just about how sort of societal,

like human thoughts are imposed onto animal behavior. Yes. We just don't know that they're talking to each other. Right. There's a lot of like, oh, what you never realize is this is what the animals talk about when you're not around.

Kind of classic talking animal rules. And then the babe pig in the city trailer, when you go like, babe sounds different. James Cromwell's nowhere to be seen. And now apparently fully dressed chimpanzees live in a flop house. And also the orangutan throughout the movie is disturbing yes just menacing waiting for him to murder some felonious monkey yes at the end when he is helping uh the the lady hang her clothing i'm like he's gonna murder cromwell and take over as like her husband. That guy is creeping me out. You cannot get a read on this guy's allegiances. You do not know where Thelonious Monkeys' allegiances lie.

Well, so this is the thing. And as you're talking about, like one of the differences I realized between Babe and Babe Pig in the City is one of the fascinating things. I think one of the things that made Babe work is that Babe, the character is is i mean admittedly fairly passive like things keep happening around him in the first movie so you're looking at him interact with the sheep you're looking at him interact with the two dogs

and you're watching like him grow into being more confident and being good at this thing and the relationships that form right and then it also is like not only are we doing away with the societal part of like we're in a farm or you're learning about how these animals interact now you also are like hey you remember those two dogs that were like his parents where he earned the love of the dad they're out hey remember those sheep that he worked with that he let they're out and it was just like even the the duck ferdinand doesn't come into like the back to the third act only complaint i believe was like more duck i love that duck right that's the thing is ferdinand no no joke honks in this movie yes but they just like removed every hey like you know how

you liked all of these things in the first one? Get them the fuck out. But we know your favorite thing is them singing mice. We kept those babies. But not to repeat myself, that's what's most astonishing about this movie is that it jettisons almost everything that people reacted to most strongly in the first film. But the movie is also very clearly the director saying, let me prove to you that I'm responsible for the first movie being good yes to get

back into the plot after Babe mutilates Farmer Hogget by dropping him into a well and then dropping a giant piece of machinery onto his head a really ominous sequence with the sort of aesthetics and the tone of daniel plainview down the well in the beginning of there will be yes

exactly what i was thinking of and and especially with the narration in there of like the pig would wonder for years if only right if and i was like jesus yeah it's all insane and in in a movie that in the first babe you probably would just need him bonking his head uh miller is just sort of like let's just bring this up to 11 so i'm a doctor i'm gonna show you serious injuries exactly exactly so hoggett's out so the farm can't pay its bills so the tax men come come and Esme, played by first billed Magda Subansky, decides to take Babe to a faraway sheepdog herding contest. Right? Isn't it an appearance?

Yeah, it's like he's going to get an appearance fee. And they just only get trapped in the city because like that's like they're connecting flight or whatever. Like that's the only reason they're in the city at all. He's not trying to get to the city. Right. No, this fucking drug sniffing dog. Yeah. A real narc.

Which like this is this other weird thing is, you know, as we're saying, like the first babe is like you understand a farm. It's a small contained space. We know how animals exist on a farm. Animals have you understand a farm it's a small contained space we know how animals exist on a farm animals have roles on a farm we're transposing that onto like the internal life of the animals and how they would treat it like a job but we understand the whole movie is based on the fact that like a pig doesn't uh herd sheep that's not what happens here right and then this movie then makes the transition to okay here, here are animals who have jobs. This is like in the real world, a real animal that has a real job.

And what kind of attitude would he have? So already you're like, this is odd to see Mrs. Hoggett and Babe in this like terrifying modernist airport. It feels off-putting. It feels like it's immediately abandoning the entire energy of the first movie. But you understand, like, okay, yeah, so Babe could meet a drug-sniffing dog or a bomb-sniffing dog, and he could think, like,

take his job very seriously, but also not understand why everyone responds to him so strongly. That's kind of a fun conceit that he just thinks the barking is like a party trick to get the attention. And he doesn't understand that that's what does in Mrs. Hoggett and babe.

Cause so much of babe is the babe is this innocent. He doesn't understand anything. Everyone he meets teaches him a little something about the world. And in part babe ends up teaching them, but, uh, right. This is like,

it dooms him they end up uh pulling mrs hoggett uh she is because she is smuggling drugs right in like this very terrifying like interrogated by like seemingly i don't know they look like cia officials yes and And I, not to nitpick, but if I may, may I nitpick for a moment? You may. Thank you. The idea, I fly a lot, do a lot of conventions and a lot of tours. Humblebrag.

You do not, they do not make you go to baggage claim and get your baggage and then check your baggage again to get on a connecting flight. That is not how that works. And yet that is what trips her up. She's waiting for the pig to come through baggage claim so she can

go get on another flight? No, no, no. I call foul. Well, hey, don't call foul until Ferdinand shows up. We're making the same joke. We're rushing to the same thing. But then it sets up this thing of, okay, so now she's missed her flight.

There's no other flight for her to get on. They're stuck waiting at the airport. And now the film reveals this element that the rest of the world outside of this farm is so aggressively hostile to animals. Yes. That within this airport, she has no place she can stay.

Everyone's kicking her out. She tries to bundle it up as a baby. She doesn't know what to do. She's stuck looking for somewhere to stay until I guess the next flight is the next day. Is that the idea? Yeah. She's looking for a one night stay. And then one of the weirdest conceits in this movie a man comes up to her and

recommends to her this one hotel in the city and then the narrator says who knows why this kind man offered this advice and the man turns around a camera and he looks exactly like a pig there is a running thing in this movie that every once in a while the only acts of kindness that are done from human to human in this film happen by people who have been cursed to look exactly like pigs and take some pity on hog it. This happens like three times in the film. There's like a judge. Is that not the same person?

Different people. It was the same person. It's like they were. They're different people. Jesus Christ. It's just more like, it's like, okay,

look, here's what life is like. There's a big city then there's a bunch of farms okay in the big city people live their lives you got all it looks like you know a party 24 7 there's people bleeding punks exactly it's it's right it's your it's venice beach circa 1998 but there's buckets of glue and there's animal hotels and you know don't try and go to the airport blah blah blah and if you try and check into a hotel With a pig you're cursed obviously

But there are also pig people Is it a hotel though Because it seems like they're Living yeah sure it's a residential hotel I suppose you could call it Yeah it's a boarding house That's what it feels like to me But right the second they get

to the city proper, when they leave the airport and you first see the skyline and then you go in and the skyline immediately stands out as like these are, as we said, landmarks that are not usually in the same image. Something weird is going on here here and then they cut into this weird venice street corner yeah it looks like the premiere of the phantom menace red carpet or whatever like it's so incongruous and the movie just divorces all reality at this point it goes like this is not babe pig in a city there's a reason we didn't name it Babe Pig in New York. We decided that the city this film takes place in is every city

all at once. If Coruscant is the whole planet is a city, this is the whole city is all cities. Yes, but here's what I will say though, just from a design standpoint. I don't know if you guys know this. I have done some professional scenic design for theater and so I get really hung up on scenic design. And if you guys know this. I have done some professional scenic design for theater. And so I get really hung up on like scenic design.

And if you look at like the Venice beat, like I was right, the Venice canal area, right? The canals. It's a very specific design where you're like, oh, this is a soundstage where they built this. It doesn't necessarily, it kind of looks like the canals by Venice beach. It kind of looks like actual venetian canals but it is very general and specific at the same time but when they go when she goes to that beach that is so one for one venice beach that it's like oh you didn't build a set for that one you went on location for that one so you went from soundstage to on location and it looks like it's lit two different

ways it looks like two different set it is upsetting visually to me because it is like she wandered off set and they just started filming outside the studio and i want to see if i can find this but i think this film was like the largest exterior set ever made. The main sort of Venetian cityscape. But this is one of those insane film production stories where it was like, not only was it like one of the biggest and most expensive sets that was ever made, and that was its own cost and time and energy

but i think it was filmed in australia i think the beach isn't venice beach i think it's somewhere in sydney but um they there wasn't a soundstage big enough to realize the set they wanted so they were building a soundstage in order to then build the set on the soundstage. It was shot in Australia, yes. Yeah. They had to create a studio large enough to then create the largest set ever.

So they were like, it was the cost of building the facility and then building the set on the facility. I think they took some run-down and had to like rebuild it and expand it in order to build that set. But the movie is it's one of those things where it's just like it is much like Eyes Wide Shut, where when the film came out, everyone was like, this movie is supposed to be New York is shot in London, and it looks nothing like New York, and it feels nothing like New York, and it's an abject failure at representing New York. And Scorsese was one of the first people to go like, he's Stanley Kubrick. Like, if it doesn't look like New York, and it doesn't seem like New York, that's intentional. He could have made a fake New York and London if that's what he wanted to do. And I think part of the conceit that George Miller is doing here is like,

this is a city that actually defies logic, where you can oscillate between things that look like real locations and look like sets, terrains that don't make sense within a mile of each other. Travis is scrunching up his face. He's making a no-no, stinky poo-poo face. Because that, what you're saying there is, one, it's bonkers to me to compare

George Miller and Stanley Kubrick, but two, you can't say, like, because I'm a genius, this works. That's not a good, logical argument. Well, you see, the reason this works is i'm right well i know i think it is i think he's trying to create a city that is so thoroughly overwhelming that it has to be every city all at once yes but i think the problem is is right now the

and listen i hate to argue with you guys you know i love you guys so much but love you too the the i think the reason i can't process this movie in such a way that i enjoy it is that it asks me to accept that everything is bonkers like there is no okay for example the woman who runs this hotel, right? If she was more normal. She's an odd lady, let's be honest. And from the beginning, I once again, when she seems to be conspiring with Fugly, that they are both going to kill the pig or something. But if she had come across as very sweet and genuine, I would have been like been like oh this represents like the same thing the farm is which is this is like this oasis of kindness and but instead she's bonkers and

she's like you can't trust anybody in the city but that's the thing that's kind of the take right that's the thing is i want it to be you can't trust anyone but this person and that's why she is so unhappy and she doesn't fit in right sure like instead it's just like uh like the world is is bonkers the characters are bonkers we never get one single solitary line of explanation as to why everyone hates animals so much like it's just like you accept that everything is bonkers all the time, but because everything is bonkers, there's no solid, like stand here and just look around at all the bonkers things I've made. Everything is so topsy turvy that I can't gain perspective on how wonderfully bonkers everything is.

We're all smiling as you monologue. Cause we're all like, yeah, that's great. You're making it sound awesome. Exactly. great you're making it sound awesome exactly i need one i need one piece of ground that i can babe is not baby's a shitty character he's super grounded he's a super grounded chill dude he's got a spike collar he's a maximum killer it looks like a toupee yeah why does he have the little the little wig he he has it in the first Yeah, why does he have the little wig? He has it in the first movie, too. What's up with his little, like, tufty hair?

I think it's to make him look unique. I mean, there's, like, you know, so many, like, animal films have, like, and this is the one special animal. They got this one weird differentiating visual. I think it's also to make him stand out,

but it's not like there are a lot of other pigs in either of these movies. Right. It's fairly... This is a really weird movie, guys. Also, none of the other animals know what he is. Yes. Which is weird.

But I guess it's like a city animal thing. No, but even on the farm in the original movie I feel like no they know him better it's in this one right this is the one where no one understands what species he is hey can I ask you guys an off topic question well I mean it's on topic because we're talking

about Babe Pit the City but aside from Babe and any of the original farm animals who's your favorite animal character in this movie? Oh, that's a tough question. I mean, you're talking about some of my best friends of all time. I know, I know. And I'm making you choose.

It's like choose a child, you know? For me, it's definitely the bull terrier. You know, the mean dog who becomes a nice dog okay i actually i might i do love that writing wise that mean dog's like listen i'm a mean dog i'm not gonna start being nice it's just that i owe you and i recognize that i want you to know i would still if you hadn't saved my life i'd be killing you right now hey travis yeah thank the pig thank the pig thank the pig. Thank the pig. Thank the pig.

Oh, God. That scene is crazy. All right. We need to keep going. No, I want to know Griffin's favorite animal. My favorite animal. I mean, obviously, I'm a flea lick guy. He's right in my wheelhouse. I knew you were going to say flea lick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, for me, it's the nameless, voiceless cabbage and monkey who just seems to be there whenever they need someone with hands and thumbs or whatever. He's a rapscallion. He does steal. I love him. And he's in a kilt? Oh, I enjoy him immensely. I know, right? That was a good choice for him. Costume wise. Is that your guy, Ben?

The monkey as well? Yeah, that makes sense. My favorite performance is Bob the Chimpanzee, played by- Stephen Wright. Deadpan alt-comedian Stephen Wright. That's another thing. Right, but to go, it's 1998, it's the sequel to Babe.

You're adding more animals, more speaking roles, more voiceover parts. The first movie is mostly, it's Hugo Weaving and Miriam Margolis. But now, like you're going into this film, it's a blockbuster. You could get any actors you want. Who are your two big name actors? Glenn Headey and Stephen Wright are your two big name voiceover actors.

Adam Goldberg, the same year as Saving Private Ryan. And then most of the rest of the cast is voiceover artists. Yep. Like, cartoon voiceover artists. That's the moment for me where the film, like, when you go to Venice, it gets ten degrees crazier in the same way that when you go to the airport it gets ten degrees crazier in the same

way that the parade gets ten degrees crazier than the original Bape. But the moment where the film just immediately goes this takes place in upside down, bug nuts, banana world, is when they're going through the boarding home and they get to the door with the chimpanzees and they're fully dressed

in a fully furnished apartment watching TV. Yes. And the monkeys fully behave like human beings. The most disturbing moment in the movie for me is so we've just watched, it's not even the dog hanging and drowning and clearly

dying and then somehow being resurrected through Babe's love. No, it is right after that when then suddenly, seemingly out of the woodwork, about 20 other animals that we have not seen previously show up and treat babe like the literal savior

and they're like will you please help us other animal and then they all line up as one by one they get like a jelly bean out of a jar great scene he's a street king and they thank the pig they gotta thank that pig

thank the pig thank the pig so right george miller is like look in the city might makes right and you're just gonna have to learn that and it's a tough lesson that you have to learn but that doesn't mean you can you have to you can let go of your you know your kindness your inherent empathy for life right like that's sort of the crucial moment in the middle of the movie. Babe is more passive than this character and he doesn't have

a goal like in the first movie he's like I want to be a sheep pig. This is what I'm saying. But he is one of those Paddington type characters where it's like the key to babe is that everyone who meets

him gets a little bit changed by him. He's not a piece of shit. Right. Right. That he just is sort of so steadfast

in his beliefs or at least is so sort of open in his earnestness that he makes people question the structures that they previously believed in. And in the original film, it's like, maybe you could be nice to sheep rather than yell at them. And in this film, it's like power structures within a city. It's like a mob enforcer pit bull right so maybe i can drenched maybe i can

make this pig a made man that's exactly what it is yes yes like that jelly bean scene is like line up and kiss the ring like i have anointed this guy as the new don of the city and babe's just like oh thank you very much thank Thank you for coming. And so if I may pick up the plot for a moment. Please. It now takes yet another harsh turn in plot-wise where you're like, okay, I think I see, nope. Because then the across the street neighbors who we have not introduced before this moment

call the animal police because they're disturbing their- Animal SWAT team, like you said. The animal SWAT team. They are listening to an opera and the animals are somehow disturbing this. And so the animal SWAT rolls up and starts choking animals

and putting them in nets, including the sudden appearance of chimp babies. You're missing a key detail here. We're jumping over a big point, which is she's supposed to fly out the next day. Oh, right. But while she's checking in and a kooky hotel animal lady is giving her the tour, Flugly Flume discovers Babe.

Flugly Flume played by Mickey Rooney. Of course. Legendary Hollywood actor Mickey Rooney. And kidnaps him as he said. Who only lived for 16 more years after this movie. Do you think while making this film, Mickey Rooney, because I really couldn't decide,

do you think on set he was like, I was Mickey Rooney, I was the biggest star in Hollywood, goddammit, and now I'm playing Fugly, Flume, and Babe 2? Or do you think he was looking around the set and going like, finally a picture the way we used to make them? I think it's that second one, Griffin. Some animals wearing little clothes walking on their hind legs? I get this.

This makes sense to me. He was 15 years removed from his honorary Oscar. He just kept working. I know. He's got zero human dialogue in this film. I mean, he just is drunkenly slurring and mumbling. Yeah, he just whispers, basically. His pants honk.

His pants do honk. He is whisked off to the hospital so basically that scene plays out where it's the chimps and the orangutan and babe and fugly performing at a children's hospital it all goes wrong because babe is in the wrong place at the wrong time again

and then cut to fugly being wheeled off on a gurney? Dead! Yes. Are those two things connected? Well, his business is ruined because the whole set burned down. No, I understand that, but he seemed to be okay

at the end of that scene. And then later, Thelonious says, I tried to wake him and he wouldn't wake up. I think the accident at the hospital and him being wheeled off of the gurney are two separate events. Well, on Wikipedia,

it claims that he is in a food coma. I don't know why. It doesn't explain how he got in a food coma. Babe also fired a cannon at his pussy. He ate a lot of food. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

I think he might've died of a broken heart, you get a food coma eating a lot of food. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I think he might have died of a broken heart, you know, because the act went so poorly that day. Sure, sure, sure. He's a content professional. Right. He hates to give a crowd less than 110%. Right. But this sets up the closest thing this movie has to a plot, which is Mrs. Hoggett and Babe are separated, and she's

gotta find Babe. And Babe is kind of, like, on his own. Right, right. She goes out wandering the city trying to find Babe. In the process, Anger's a biker gang who then attacks a bunch of cops who look like the cops from the first

Mad Max. Like, very tight b first Mad Max. Uh, yeah. Like very tight biker leather cops. Right. Yes. Right. Right.

Right. Uh, gets a bucket of, uh, uh, billboard paste dumped on her head and gets shipped off to jail. And the movie is, can Mrs.

Hoggett find babe and get him back and somehow get out of this. God forsaken. Hoggett is out of the action for like a full 45 minutes after that, right? Like she is not really seen. And that's when Babe has his run in with the mean dogs. And that's when the bridge sequence happens. This is when humans just disappear from the movie for an extended period of time. Because, right, he gets chased. I mean, he's sort of

those street scenes of him just wandering around the city displaced, not knowing what to do. With a family, I mean, what, we have four, three chimpanzees and orangutan. A husband, a wife. And then the little monkey.

Well, the monkeys come later. The little monkeys come later. They apparently. But no, there's the brother-in- come later the little monkeys come later they apparently no there's the brother-in-law the little brother of bob right and and the two adult chimpanzees uh both have hair yes cool the glen heady chimpanzee has like long lady hair and uh bob the chimpanzee has like a fucking steve van zant sopranos like pompadour yes this is accurate and then the lone monk wears like a very tight three-piece suit yeah yeah it's like velvet and it has like a freaking pocket watch or whatever like it is he is putting i mean tight in terms of like it's fucking styling like

his part of the act is he just takes the signs on and off well see this is where maybe this isn't a different edit but i got the impression that he was kind of the brains of the thing and fugly was like kind of out of it a little bit at this point so maybe when they were younger they had this act together but now mostly theelonious keeps it going as Fugly is kind of like maybe losing a little bit of his edge and he's not so much... Not able to talk or say words. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's the conceit, is that in the winter of their showbiz career, Fugly Flume has now become the trained animal and Thelonious Monkey is kind of the human host of the proceedings, the MC. Uh, but they're wandering through this strange city. Babe comes across two very ferocious dogs who chase him an extended chase.

Uh, great chain work. Unbelievable. I mean, this dog is literally also chain heavy. Oh, I mean this chain sequence there's like there's a shot at one point with the lawnmower where the lawnmower drags into the

camera yeah that's some great stuff great do you think that some of the dog violence that was cut was the other dog dying because it just disappears right yeah that doberman as far as i could find that is what was cut. Yeah, okay. But this extended chase where you're like, right, this is the Mad Max guy. He's doing an extended, hyper-violent, terrifying dog-v-pig foot chase through an unforgiving city until they end up on the bridge back in the Venetian section of the city. The dog jumps over or falls over the bridge, is hanging himself near death after the wide moment. His head is suspended underwater and his body is jerking around as he slowly drowns. He's underwater for a long time.

Yes. It takes that pig a while to swim. Babe makes this active choice to follow kindness and to save the life of someone who was just trying to kill him. Now, to a point that you made earlier, Griffin, I would like to just, real quick, let everyone close their eyes and picture. In the first movie, you see a pig talking to some dogs or whatever,

and we, the human beings, see it. I'm like, all right. Now imagine this scene where we see a dog hanging from a chain over the side of a bridge to the left we see three chimpanzees while a orangutan looks on there's an army of dogs

watching and I think some cats and three singing mice as a pig pushes a boat under to save the dog and a capuchin monkey comes in on length and a human is watching from the distance like this seems normal okay yeah nothing weird here i mean there there is this uh i think it was mgm maybe in like the 20s had a series of live action short films called the dogville shorts that I am obsessed with.

They were eventually discontinued because there were questions over how humane they were. But they are just sort of like genre exercises of like types of old-fashioned studio Hollywood films acted out entirely by dogs.

They build little dogs. Oh, like how CBS used to do the monkey movies. Yes. So they're little dogs on their hind legs wearing human clothes, and they're like dog waiters serving fancy dogs, having dinner at like a dog dance hall.

I will send you folks links to them, and I'll post them on the Reddit. But there's this really weird, unnatural thing to them where you're just like, they're so well executed. It is so unnerving, the sort of nuance of performance they get out of the dogs. I don't want to know what they had to do to get those performances out of the dogs. But the sort of just like very subtle head shifts and then the dubbing of the actors over it. and then the dubbing of the actors over it.

It's this very bizarre thing to watch animals do human things and have the film you're watching say like, and this is normal. You just have to accept all of this is normal. And the scene that you just described, Travis, is like the chimpanzees are the audience surrogates at that moment. Like you are seeing this horrible scene through the eyes of the chimpanzees who are the audience surrogates at that moment. Like, you are seeing this horrible scene through the eyes of the chimpanzees who are the normal characters.

A family of primates wearing human clothes with little wigs having just abandoned their career in show business. Your point, Griffin, makes me think about what if you were just a crew guy, like, just a grip

working on this like recounting your day what the fuck was this movie what happened to you today these fucking monkeys are dressed up and I don't know and this dog drowned his pig was watching it's like complete insanity animal training for films such as it is uh takes so long to get anything that you just have to imagine that like every two minutes of this film took two days yeah so let's say this must have been a nightmare to make right oh yeah yeah oh for sure just the poop alone imagine where they're all lined up down the stairs that was someone going step by step saying stay stay stay stay stay and

hoping that these like 40 animals fucking stayed in one place for the shot that they all line up and you're dealing with slightly more docile animals in the first bay but this one they're just like let's up the amount of dogs right and we're dogs and cats

and monkeys in the same room that's that's nature's three greatest enemies dogs cats monkeys that's the class that's why we see versus and a fish and one fish. So, after the whole dog sequence and then the Godfather-esque tribute paying sequence involving Jelly Beans. You mean dog drowning scene. Yes, right. Sorry, dog drowning.

What did he say? Did he say God drowning? He just said dog scene. I'd like to just, you know, clarify. Yeah, no, not in this. In the third Babe movie, the plan was that Babe would try to drown God. But we didn't get to that, unfortunately. This is another amazing dialogue exchange that comes out of this point in the movie. When he saves the Pitbull and the Pitbull thanks him

effusively. Babe says you're very kind but and the Pitbull goes no no I'm anything but kind in fact I have a professional obligation to be malicious I love this great line. Babe says then you should change jobs

isn't that does the dog see a murderous shadow is over him or whatever like there's all these lines that are so florid and kind of fancy sounding which is miller's specialty that's the thing is that that dialogue that moment between the dog and babe is easily my favorite moment of this entire week i was like oh i would watch these two on a buddy comedy forever yeah they're pretty cool and then you get introduced to all the other stray dogs who have somehow just sort of found babe including the pink poodle right and he's kind of fighting here yes yes right right they

because this babe needs to get a little tough he needs to get his chain uh neck what do you call it collar yeah his spiky collar, right. He needs to get a bit of an attitude if he's going to survive in the city. So then, all of the animal SWAT shows up and starts taking people away. The neighbor is called, animal SWAT shows up.

And the implication is that the opera-loving neighbors are the ones who called the SWAT team on him. And then, thus begins a five-minute-long horrifying scene where we just see one by one animals with, like, chokers put around their neck and nets thrown over them. And, like, they attempt to kill the fish. Once again, that fish, out of water for a really long time.

And then Babe spits the fish into the canal. And in a scene that for half a second I was like, is he eating that fish? And then he spits the fish into the canal. And in a scene that for half a second, I was like, is he eating that fish? And then he spits the fish out. But it is horrifying. The chimpanzee lady has just given birth to twins. I was going to say, out of nowhere. We don't know she's pregnant.

They have their great jelly bean kiss the ring. Here's our ceremony to induct babe into the mafia scene and then she starts complaining about her belly he puts his ear up to it and the next thing you know we're in the middle of animals

it's a delivery sequence all the animals come together and help deliver these chimpanzee twins who are the cutest robot chimpanzees i've ever seen with umbilical cords the way this movie had been shaping up i thought the babe would be the one to deliver the babies don't worry i've seen this on the farm like he has a little like scrubs on that'd be really cute so then like no no joke five seconds after these babies are delivered the animal slot shows up so we see her holding the babies like get a net thrown

which was horrifying to me terrible and everything you're describing is just demented like all of this just sounds fake it just sounds like you're making it up capuchin monkey Babe and Ferdinand are able to escape the clutches of these people they choose not to take Fleelick I guess because he is in a doggy wheelchair so instead Fleelick bites onto a lab coat and gets dragged behind the truck for miles

and so Ferdinand, Babe and the Capuchin Monkey go following them they find Fleelick, let's be honest, dead. He is in the afterlife. He is dead. You see that? Babe brings him back. From heaven!

Yes. Which anyone who's watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was reminded of that. They brought Fleelick back and I wanted Fleelick to back. You should have left me there! Why didn't you leave me there anyways so then they roll up to this hospital and also as may is now escaped from prison or not escaped from prison been set free from jail because the uh pig judge said i feel bad for you because i love pigs and set her free she is still caked in uh paste

and there's a scene where she's looking for the pig and i guess her now hardened dress splits wide open and we see her bloomers which is i assume why imdb told me that the sex and nudity in this movie was mild but there are also a bunch of naked animals for yeah these animals are not wearing clothes in some circumstances so all the animals butthole shot one yeah um so babe and the kabocha monkey and fleelick and uh and for man find all the animals i guess or they've been taken to be experimented upon yeah you're also you're you're skipping over the fact that for a solid 10 minutes of the film, even though he eludes capture, Babe continues running around, trailing with him the full, whatever that thing's called, that weird noose on a stick. Yes.

Slipknot. He's carrying that long metal pole with the noose around his neck. And he's wearing a Slipknot t-shirt the whole time it's so weird it's so weird but hey it makes sense he's got that uh collar he's got that spike collar so he's just like he's expanding his horizons so i'm not certain where it happens but also as a runs into the owner of the hotel and they make a plan to go save the animals. And the only clothes she has that will fit her is the fugly flume clown costume, which she dons.

Oh, so Mickey Rooney is like four foot 10. There's no way that would fit her. I mean, there's a lot of things that are no way in this movie, you know, but you seem okay with it, Griffin. This is the only logic problem I have in the entire movie. That the same clothes would not fit Mrs. Hoggett and Flugly Flu.

So the two of them are going to rescue the animals. Meanwhile, Babe has set all of the animals free from their cages, but Thelonious needs to get dressed before they can leave. And in this delay, it allows time for the attendant to come back and lock the door now here's what I do love because this is never explored but I think they could have spent

a little more time on this one point that I think at this point Thelonious sees himself and listen it's clear through there's a lot of showing of this and not telling but I think they could have told a little bit that I think at this point Thelonious considers himself more human than animal yes um

orangutans very you know they're they're very close uh relatives to the human right he carries himself he's not willing to go out without his clothes on oh that scene is so tragic when they're trying to get them out of there and he refuses to leave because he hasn't finished fully dressing and he's like slowly like putting on his suspenders that that is it is both I agree sad because of like oh what a poor character but also can you imagine trying to coach an orangutan

to put on some suspenders like oh come on buddy you just gotta you just gotta oh come on oh slowly struggle with it yes so then they have to escape through some back channels. There's a thing with the kid

from the earlier thing. A funny elevator joke. A funny elevator joke. Funny. We love elevator antics. It's good humor because the door's open and the animals are in there

but no one's looking so then the door's closed before anyone looks. Ah. And then somehow everyone's at a big gala. Yes. They gotta come face to face with high society.

The whole movie has been leading up to the ultimate showdown, like the Avengers facing Thanos. Yeah. The cast of Babe Pig in the City has to come up against the Blue Bloods. Well, I think Miller is like, I've built this city environment.

On rock and roll. Yeah, I built this city on rock and roll babe is here and he now needs to understand who the real villain is which is the rich right like we have to eat the rich you know who's been pitting the poor animals against each other and creating all you know like you know having narcs at the airport and flop houses that you know generate all this kind of bad blood it's the rich and here they are in all of their evil glory but also to that point though none of them seem all that bad i mean the well right it's gotta be rated g right the chefs seem worse than the rich people most of the rich

people are just like what's happening meanwhile the for some reason the kitchen staff is trying to kill all these animals like it defies all like animal rules or just like I've never seen anything where someone's just like, I'm going to take this animal now. Yes. It's crazy. No, that makes sense for the kitchen staff. They're good business people. They see a free pig and they just take in its mind now. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Sure. That one, that's a logic point that don't work for me so that's rules thus ensues what feels like a 45 minute scene of of of i would say not movie confusing bedlam but legitimately confusing bedlam where at any moment i can't tell you where anyone is it is beyond thunderdome i mean it truly is this is around the time when she gets elevated off the chandelier with the

suspenders and her bloomers inflate i don't because the tag like a tag that we've only seen in like the corner bottom frame of some shots gets pulled as they were supposed to be like, Oh no, that was the red button, but they never addressed that. It was a red. So she bounces around.

She bounces around the room trying to get that pig. And you think that if you said, Hey, Oh, you'll get this pig out of here. Yes, please take it. Yeah.

We don't like this pig. This pig disrupted our party. We don't like this pig this pig disrupted our party we don't want this pig to be here yes please do remove this pig I shouldn't talk about the way this movie ends because I will be so angry do one of you want to talk about the

denouement the deus ex machina sure gives money to Es me she saves the phone hoggett shows up he's feeling great says that'll do pig that'll do james cromwell is handed a check for one million dollars and he promptly cashes it i don't know when you skipped a part which is that the hotel becomes a nightclub to stick it to the opera loving people across the street and the takeaway is opera stinks

it's for losers never call the cops this is my theory as to what happens George Miller turns in the script and he's like bada bing bada boom nailed it fucking killed it and they're like hey George this just kind of ends with her getting the pig back and he's like yep

and they're like hey George in the beginning of thing, you said that the farm's in trouble. And he goes, oh, shit. Right, right, right. Give me that script back real quick. Hold on. They rent out the hotel. And all of the animals live on the farm. Yes.

Except the wheelie dog continues to bite trucks and bite trucks and be dragged yes which is a fun the country life was too slow for him right the pit the pit bull gets with the pink hair poodle and they have pit bull puppies with pink hair wigs but to talk about how sort of foreboding everything is in this film oh here's the happy end montage where we explain what happened to all your favorite animal friends look flea tick found uh trucks he's still zoom in oh look the chimpanzees became naturalists they're now naked living in a tree they love it it suits them just fine and the pit bull and the pink poodle eventually got together it didn't last like they immediately and the nice wrap-up they just go like she eventually left him for some fancier dog he's

now a single father he is single father to five pitbulls with pink pompadours and also the thelonius is busy talented mr ripley in Cromwell. Soon I will be the husband. He is going to murder Mr. Hoggett. That feels like it would have been the third film. I do love- Rain 3, Babe is Framed for Murder. It ending with the same final line,

especially when that final line is such a fucking slam dunk. Like if you talk about Babe, as you said, whether or not you've seen the movie Babe, people know that'll do, pig. And I think they know that shot. And as great as James Cromwell is, that is such an unlikely Oscar nomination that it really is that line reading

that gets him the nomination. That's the thing that pushes it over the edge, because he barely has any dialogue in that film. It's mostly a silent performance so then to repeat the same final line delivered by the same character who is barely a presence in this movie makes it weirdly like like farmer hoggett is like the charlie to babe's angels and at the end of every mission he's like another mission successfully accomplished baby that'll do pig that'll do i would also point out babe doesn't do shit so you think if he was like that'll do pig then someone you know i'm

like what did he do he didn't win he changes some minds he saves a dog he changes some minds went to the city did shit in the city came back from the city so he did that producer pig that's what i say he made shit happen he didn't see any of that what he saw he's a facilitator he's a big picture guy but no one saw him walking around the city from there it was probably all over the news though this was all over the news babe saves dog folks line up to feed him jelly beans pig when i astrally projected and saw you save that dog's life i was very proud that'll do pig that'll do he's very proud yeah no he's proud that's what's weird about it jokes aside is that what he's saying that'll do pig about at the end is that finally the water pump worked the central conflict of

this movie is the faulty water pump that almost led to mr hoggett's death now four nightmarish days in the city later is finally working well enough to spew some brown water into the bathtub in the middle of a farmhouse in the middle of a farmhouse. Which he has to say, that'll do, Pig. That pump is a death trap. Yes, absolutely. It's got a thousand moving parts.

All of them easily take a finger off. No, it looks normal, just like this movie. It's very heavy. Yes, it looks like any part of it could basically chop your fingers off. It's like a steampunk pump. Yes. This movie's like a steampunk pump yes this movie's a little steampunky let me read some other insane lines of dialogue in this movie bob the chimpanzee at one point says it's all illusory it's ill and it's for losers yeah that's a good line but like

doesn't that sound like mad max dialogue like doesn't that sound like something Nux would say or whatever yes right you have to accept this movie on Mad Max terms that it's like sound and movement and energy and it's all just like representational of how awful life feels

like the apocalypse it feels like we're constantly on the brink of because George Miller is first and foremost an apocalyptic filmmaker and in babe a franchise that is not apocalyptic he's saying like well the city would feel like an apocalypse to a farm animal yes uh here's another incredibly dire line i mean this one is less florid but just like bleak when ferdinand finally arrives because ferdinand is like the one classic animal friend from the farm in the first movie who follows babe but it takes him a long time to get there his wings aren't strong enough a fucking pelican has to capture him and uh fly

him over in his mouth so he finally joins the crew late and he says to Babe, face it, you're just a little pig in the big city. What can you possibly do? What can anyone do? Why even try? Wow. You made me think of something else I wanted to point out that I really love is we are introduced to the, from an animal perspective, the toughness of the city when the cabbage and monkey steals Hoggett's suitcase and when

Babe goes to get it this is when he encounters the monkeys and this is where the monkeys are like I don't know what to tell you kid the world's hard and I want to go into that scene and if it was like people I'd be like I don't know what to tell you you stole my it's right there the world's not that hard you created this problem and you could easily solve it i don't know what to

tell you kid life will chew you up and spit you out i mean not really that's my suitcase right there there's no confusion here no but it's that classic game of being like that suitcase there i mean that's his now i mean he's loving it he's doing a great job but that is not indicative of the city will chew you up and spit you out so much as yeah we're kind of shitheads in this specific room right now for sure but every animal in this film every city animal in this film is just broken it's just dead inside i mean the poodle says here's another incredibly bleak line the poodle says please please i know you're different from the others those that have had their way with me make their empty promises but they're all lies lies and i'm afraid and terribly terribly tired jesus and when babe says where's your human desire like that yes when babe says where's your human she says my humans belong

to someone else now someone younger and prettier like this is a city that has been so unkind to every citizen oh boy it's a wild fucking movie and you have to accept it in its own terms or not it is playing its own game you reject it much like the city tries to reject

babe don't you make me into the city Griffin Newman I'm gonna make you the city don't you make me into the city Griffin Newman I'm gonna make you the city don't you make me the city well I guess you could argue that this movie is kind of in the tradition of horror movies and that it's like the characters in the city

I mean Leprechaun in the city Jason in the city Pig in a nightmare landscape in the city. This is true. Yes, it's true. It's like,

we all know X and I'm like, yeah, of course I love that guy. And it's like, but what have you went to the city? Next, Babe in Space. Babe in Space would be fun.

Fuck, I'd watch the hell out of Babe in Space. That'd be good. I got it. Here's what it is. Cause it's like, you know, we sent a,

we sent a dog up there we sent a chimp up there a pig i'm just saying maybe babe accidentally gets sent up to space during uh it's the russian american british space race you know i can hear the record scratch now a pig and it would end with babe parachuting back to Earth and splash landing. And then he's retrieved by the U.S. military. And then Farmer Hoggett says, that'll do, pig, that'll do. Yeah. That's the thing.

Every movie would always have to end that way. Like if Babe defeated Hitler, like that would be the ending. Farmer Hoggett would say that'll do. Farmer Hoggett. This film establishes that Farmer Hoggett is essentially the m to big's jane babe's james bond yes yes and at the end of every film he checks in and it's like another mission perfectly carried out by agent babe as babe makes love to another bond girl yes this is exactly what happens in every babe movie yeah could babe get a girlfriend have they ever thought of reviving babe like is the babe franchise fully dormant is that is it like you know i wonder like cartoon spinoff or whatever yeah i mean i feel like they had big ambitions at this point in time and they died quickly with this movie um i also

imagine because it's usually how he operates that george miller retains a lot of the rights yeah yeah so even though it's a universal film i think he's holding on to it won't let anyone run with it outside well let's play the box office game if we're gonna talk about that because this film cost 90 million dollars and made 18 domestic huge right it made it made 69 worldwide so it couldn't even cover its own budget worldwide nice david that's the sex number yeah you're right you're absolutely right that'll do travis yeah that's the number for sex you're right um and it came out unlike babe which came out it's like a sleepy august weekend it came out unlike babe, which came out and it's like a sleepy August weekend. It came out on Thanksgiving.

Right. Like babe was a classic end of summer dump becomes a sleeper hit and an Oscar phenomenon. This was like, it's a holiday blockbuster. Right. And it is the highest grossing move, new movie of that Thanksgiving weekend, but it's opening at number five eight million dollars yeah that's terrible and uh some other new movies that are opening below it uh home fries oh very bad things oh a movie that the jerry's gave me nightmares having never seen it i just

knew in the trailer that they accidentally killed someone in Very Bad Things and like that to me I was 15 in 1998 and that to me was my greatest fear of the time and it continued to be my greatest fear until present is accidentally killing someone which movie has a bleaker view of society Babe Pig in the City

or Very Bad Thing Babe Pig in the City Babe Pig in the City yeah the Jerry Springer vehicle ring master so this is like a bombs away very bad thing babe pig in the city pig in the city yeah all right the jerry springer uh vehicle ring master this is like a bombs away weekend like all of these movies are bombing but like and in my memory that movie is like he's sort of playing himself correct like not really yes okay um so the it's a it's a kid movie friendly weekend these are mostly the top five are mostly kid movies okay tell me what's number one griffin a bug's life that's right is number two the rugrats movie that is correct that's insane yeah i remember this this was a huge huge fall for family films the rugrats movie an insane stat i will never stop mentioning the rugrats movie

is the first non-disney animated film to make a hundred million dollars oh wow it snuck over a hundred that's right until 1998 no film not made by disney had surpassed 100 animated film right um a bug's life is in its second weekend because it opened limited uh on one screen and it makes 33 million dollars and a rugrats movie number two it was number one the week before and it has made 57 million dollars i have seen both of these films, but not in years. Two masterpieces. I will say it is weird

that the Rugrats movie was enjoyed by children at the time because I rewatched that film recently in self-quarantine and that film is just about as nightmarish as this movie. You rewatched the Rugrats movie? did like in the last couple weeks okay all right we are recording this in the midst of the pandemic i felt like i needed to unwind with the rugrats

movie and that film for those who don't remember is about a bunch of it's the opposite of babe pig in the city it's babies trapped in the woods they're lost and there is a uh a train a russian circus train that gets derailed and all the monkeys escape and the monkeys are chasing them in the woods and the babies are trying to fend for their own lives i have no memory of any of that the only thing i remember is that the pickles family has another kid and they call him dill which i think is funny don't you have a thing for his for the dad yes david that's hot david thinks stew pickles is hot you think stew pickles is hot stew pickles isn't it's not like i think that i just know knowledge i know true pickles younger brother is way hotter than stew oh that's a weird take you don't take yeah because the mom angelica's mom

is where it's at right we can all agree yes i mean she's a snack she's an absolute snack yeah right listen i don't want to objectify anyone i'm just saying that angelica's mom is good looking agree uh the progress movie is sending an image to you all right now i don't trust this at all what is this gonna be david yeah you shut up oh god damn it come on wait a second all right open image i'll wait for you uh-huh while we're waiting for this to load can I guess the number three movie at the box office? Yes, you definitely can. No hints, because I want to see how many of these I can get without any hints.

Okay. Is number three Enemy of the State? Yes, Jesus Christ. Oh my God. So Babe is number five. Babe is number five. Number four. No number four no hints no hints number four we have rugrats we have a bug's life we have enemy of the state it's thanksgiving weekend it's another holdover from november 1998 it's not opening because Babe is the biggest new release.

It wouldn't be another animated film. Fuck it, I need a hint. It's not an animated film. It's a sort of a comedy for teenagers with a major star. It's a comedy for teenagers with a major star. Is a comedy for teenagers with a major star is it a high school comedy is this set at high school or is it college it's a sports comedy it's a sports comedy a 1998 teen sports comedy it's a college it's set in college it's a college sports comedy. No, it's a college. It's set in college. It's a college sports comedy in

1998. Well, it's not the college drama of Varsity Blues, which also came in 1998. College is kind of a mislead there. Like, I wouldn't put too much stock in college.

I wouldn't be thinking about the college if I was thinking about this movie. Sports is a little more helpful. And is it a major sport? Yeah, it's a major sport, very much so. Is it a basketball movie? Incorrect. Is it a football movie?

Yes. It's a football comedy from 1998, the same year as Varsity Blues, starring a major star for teens. Major star, major comedy star, major comedy, comedy star. This is kind of his I am a no fucking around huge star movie is it water boy

that's oh oh oh oh of course yes i mean it is a college football movie it's just not really what you would think about it yeah i should have gotten that and like the most dominant uh hit of that november right even though what what what is the plot of the water boy well thank you for asking david so bobby boudin is going to school and he wants to play football i can't remember he's good at giving people water um it's based on the daughters yeah it's based off a kervonigate book right i uh i re-watched this film also recently in self-quarantine i've been going through the early uh sandlers uh the plot of the fucking water boy is bobby boucher is a slow man who works as the water boy for a college that he does not attend yes and it's based off of

a sketch from canteen boy which was on saturday night live yeah it's that character in terms of voice and physicality transposed into an entirely different set of circumstances and he has a crazy mother right with uh academy award winner kathy bates and channels his rage to become a good He was in a swamp. With Academy Award winner Kathy Bates. And he channels his rage to become a good tackler, essentially. The guys on the football team are making fun of him so much that he tackles one of them. And then the new coach, who is Henry Winkler, goes, wow, you should be playing football for us. Yep. But his mom hates football. So he has to pretend that he's

not playing football and the payoff they keep calling it foosball and it's really funny it's for the devil I think it's pretty good it is very bizarre that that is the movie that made Adam Sandler

break through this is it it opens to 40 million dollars is the movie that made Adam Sandler break through. Because the one before that, it opens to $40 million. He's like, he's the star. Now he's the guy who could do anything he wants. The movie before that, which comes out this same year as The Wedding Singer, which is like, okay, finally Adam

Sandler has played a real human being. He's not as angry as Happy Gilmore. He's not as much of a child as Billy Madison. he's playing a legitimate romantic leading man he's got good chemistry with drew barry more it's a decent hit and then the water boy comes out he's like football and people flock everyone loses their fucking minds he gets elected president of the united states america's like one of these per year indefinitely thank you but only one of these per year indefinitely, thank you.

But only one of those has been turned in to a Broadway musical. Correct. It's the Waterboy. It is weird. July. He really only does three movies where he plays, like, a big character with, like, a

voice and a weird look. It's like Little Nicky, water boy and zoe yeah yep and most times i rolled out of bed i'm in this movie hey yeah i guess i got like shorts on oh yeah it's true usually doesn't have any body stuff yeah i'm in a movie buddy oh god we gotta do some sandler movie we gotta do a chris columbus so we gotta do Some Sandler movie we gotta do a Chris Columbus So we can do Pixels Oh shit If you guys do Pixels I wanna come back

I've never watched it and I've just been waiting for the opportunity David loves Pixels It's a good movie About America's infrastructure Failing to come together in a time of desperate need All I know Is that within it josh gad has sex with cubert that's all josh gad does fuck you bert that's all i know about the whole movie and cubert has babies they do they show it the baby they show it they show all of it yeah it's in c. Yeah, it's in C-17. And while it's happening, Josh Gett turns to the camera

and says, I'm the voice of Olaf while it's happening, which is crazy. And Brian Cox plays the Secretary of Defense. It's a great movie. And Peter Dinklage

plays Billy Mitchell from The King of Kong, right? That's right. He's like styled the exact same way, clearly doing an impression of that guy. David sent over a picture of Stu Pickles.

So I'm looking at Stu Pickles in one window. And then I'm looking at our grid on Zoom, our four feeds in the other window. Stu Pickles looks like Travis and David combined. Yeah, because it's like purple hair plus bags under the eyes. Tired. Yes. Yes. This is the image that you chose to be like, look how fucking hot this dude is.

It tells you so much about David's taste. I think you find Stu Pickles hot because in the same way that when you saw Joe Bowen's artwork that he did for our podcast, you were like, oh, man, he made me look hot. And both faces are exactly the same. The Stu Pickles photo you posted is just eyebrows raised, mild frown, bags under eyes, half

closed, looking kind of wistful. Broken, broken man. Broken man. This is a broken man. And you look at this. This looks like Stu after Dee Dee had left him and he had to care for Tommy and Dill on his own and he's just sick of them asking where's mommy. Just sadly

stirring a pan on the stovetop and you look at this and you go like that guy's hot. Damn. I stay in a tie tie boy. Oh boy. Ben liked that. I see you laughing I did like it

So we're at the end of the episode right? Well yeah I want to do I want to do a very brief Merchandise spotlight Love that Do you need just a moment To get it ready

Because I want to show Someone very special Oh get this ready While I'm doing the other thing Okay so I just want to say shout out to my cat pig yeah that'll do pig that'll do pig pig in the city a true pig in the city we stand a true pig in yeah exactly um this is a phenomenon i find really fascinating and it seemed to be something kind of exclusive to like second

generation uh early 2000s uh consoles do you know there is a babe video game that was released for playstation 2 okay in 2006 i i do i only know it i only know because i saw it on noted on wikipedia or something like that. And I looked it up out of interest. And it looks like this game was made for the Game Boy Color in 1995. Yes. It does not look like a PlayStation 2 game. No.

It's like an isometric, you know, kid's adventure. Yes. It looks like a Game Boy Color game that was developed probably when pig in the city was going to be released and somehow got delayed an additional eight years and came out on a major next-gen console yeah it has kind of like sim city graphics right it's like sim city 1, to be clear. Yes, correct. And it does seem to feature the characters of Babe Pig and the City. It covers both. It covers both the farm and the city. 50 challenging puzzles within six levels.

And apparently it is universally reviled. Oh, what, really? I can't. That's just, wow would have i thought okay i'm watching some gameplay right now and i just want to tell you guys that the um dialogue in the mood in the video game like the the text bubbles are in comic sans oh well blue comic A nice, regular blue. Basically, this game looks like clip art. I just sent a photo. Travis and Ben, you can look at it. But yes, it looks like clip art.

The photo I sent is from the level where they're trying to escape the lab. Oh, boy. And you can see Fleetic and Babe in a grid. fleetic and uh babe in a grid uh and seemingly a counter for uh how many keys you have to collect and how much time is left on the clock it looks like one of the worst games ever produced i don't understand this thing like the babe video game coming out in 2006 there's the blues brothers 2064 game which came out in like 2001 like there was this weird wave of video games coming out many years after a movie flopped. Yeah.

Cause people might forget that blues brothers 2000 came out in 1998. Yes. Correct. Well, yeah. Cause we had to get ready for it. You know, like the, you know, 2k. It's a future proofed movie yeah right

and you know what let's be honest timeless they could have called it Blues Brothers 3000 yes well come on Travis we have to leave some room for the next oh you're right let's wrap this up yes um Travis thank you so much for being on the show

thank you for having me it's a dream come true i just really wanted to be the last mackroy brother on the show um it means so much to me to be your last choice uh thank you guys not true not true okay well let's check the record did you have you had justin on correct and you've had griffin on correct and so then me i was the third and last one third you were the third and last uh yeah i've saved the best for last but not the last not the last choice we were saving you for the for the new mod i will say i was very excited because i remember you saying like what what george miller would you want to do and i looked at the list and i was like babe picking the city i want to talk about And I looked at the list and I was like, Babe, Pick of the City. I want to talk about this one. You didn't hesitate.

We give you first crack. I will say also, no spoilers, but I have an extensive text thread with your father, Clint McElroy. Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah. So the set is not complete. Just because we've gotten all three brothers,

the set is not complete. We will find a movie for Clint to do. It depends on what wins March Madness, which will be known at this point. But he has put in his name for a couple potential movies. Once we know what we're doing in the future, we will have something locked down.

Get that boy in. He's great. But thank you for having me. It really is a joy. I love this podcast. You're the kindest. You've been such a good friend to the show. We saved you as a guest for this long, but you have been such a strong champion to the show uh we saved you as a guest for this long but you have uh been such a strong champion of the show uh and and we uh really appreciate it and also just a good friend thank you i love you guys you guys gave me uh you guys gave me uh and now i'm able to talk about the

worst bad movie i've ever seen not fun in any way is the movie Aloha. And you guys inflicted that on me that there was no, that I, I believe there is no redeeming factor to the film Aloha that, that it is not like, but people, I, cause I love bad movies, but it is like,

this is no fun to watch. There is no fun to be had in watching the movie. It's the only movie I've had to watch in 10 minute chunks because I could not stand more than that. Check out Elizabethtown. Oh, I don't know. I feel like that was pretty early on into you listening to the show and you were tweeting about it. And we were very persistent in the fact that you had to stick with Aloha.

Because you were like tweeting 10 minutes in, should I give up on this? I kept calling my brother Justin who had gotten me into blank check and I was like I can't you have to do it this is a big milestone you gotta get to the satellite if you can watch all of Aloha you are true blankie and I was like okay I will do it

it's also one of those movies you need to see for yourself because if you gave up on it 10 minutes in you would not believe that we were being honest with our descriptions of the film. Absolutely. Because that's the thing is I've tried to describe the film a little hot to other people.

And they're like, well, that sounds fun. I'm like, no, no, you are wrong. There is no way that I can explain to you how bad it is.

Because when I describe how bad it is, you're like, that sounds funny, bad. No, that because Bradley Cooper has a reattached toe. They destroy a satellite with the history of media.

No, we can't. It hurts so much. We'll tune in next week for our second episode on Aloha. We're doing a fifth anniversary of our Aloha episode. Because Aloha is Aloha. Yes, exactly.

It's time to say both. both and Travis people should listen to the whole McElroy family of podcasts yeah you can find it at McElroy.family that's where all of our stuff is McElroy.family and do you folks know when the Adventure Zone animated series will be coming out or does the state of the world throw everything into question? It's almost like everything's uncertain forever now.

Well, I'm excited to see that whenever it happens, whenever society resumes. And thank you all for listening. And please remember to rate, review, subscribe. Thank you all for listening, and please remember to rate, review, subscribe. Thanks to Ange Fergudo for producing this show and doing our social media. Thanks to Lane Montgomery for our theme song, Pat Rounds and Joe Bowen for our artwork. Go to blankies.red.com for some real nerdy shit. Tune in next week for, of course, the logical follow-up to Babe Pig in the City, Happy Feet. George Miller refuses to

give up on children's films and somehow inexplicably makes one that everyone loves at the time. It makes a big hit that wins him a fucking Oscar. What a weird god damn career. And, as always,

that'll do, pig.