'Babe'

I don't know what it is about a farmyard that can teach so many socio-political lessons in the most simplest of fashions.

Tons more cute than Animal Farm, Babe has a sermon not unlike that of Orwell ... or at least Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Preconceived notions of other groups, classes and species are perpetrated by ignorance, passed on through generations. Over time, these "notions" turn into a series of maxims and truths.

Resolution and understanding are achieved through communication. In the end, we each have a role, but our species does not limit or control our roles.

As for it being a good film, Babe is awfully entertaining. It's funny, organized in a very simple and effective manner with the chapters and it's really well written. It's sickening cute, yet it's extremely dark with the allusions to slaughter, the death of the older sheep, the near death of Babe (what small pig kills sheep and/or what farmer thinks this?) the violence between the dogs and the rather brutal treatment of the male dog after he bites the farmer. Lots of explaining to do to a 4-year-old.