- [last lines]
- Narrator: And though every single human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say.
- Farmer Hoggett: That'll do, pig. That'll do.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever. There was a time not so long ago when pigs were afforded no respect, except by other pigs; they lived their whole lives in a cruel and sunless world. In those days pigs believed that the sooner they grew large and fat, the sooner they'd be taken into Pig Paradise, a place so wonderful that no pig had ever thought to come back.
- Babe: [as his mother is taken away by the piggery staff] Good-bye, Mom.
- Narrator: So when the day came for their parents to go to that other world of endless pleasures, it was not a time for young pigs to be sad, just another step towards the day when they, too, would make the journey.
- Narrator: There are many perfectly nice cats in the world, but every barrel has its bad apples, and it is well to heed the old adage, "Beware the bad cat bearing a grudge."
- Ferdinand: I suppose the life of an anorexic duck doesn't amount to much in the broad scheme of things.
- Cat: Oh, do forgive me for scratching you, dear. I got a bit carried away. It's a cat thing.
- Babe: [laughs] Oh, well, but...
- Cat: Feeling good about tomorrow, are you?
- Babe: Mm-hmm, it should be all right, I think.
- Cat: You know, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm not sure if you realise how much the other animals are laughing at you for this sheepdog business.
- Babe: Why would they do that?
- Cat: Well, they say that you've forgotten that you're a pig. Isn't that silly? And they even said that you don't know what pigs are for.
- Babe: What do you mean, 'what pigs are for'?
- Cat: You know, why pigs are here.
- Babe: Why are any of us here?
- Cat: Well, the cow's here to be milked, the dogs are here to help the Boss's husband with the sheep, and I'm here to be beautiful and affectionate to the Boss.
- Babe: Yes?
- Cat: [sighs softly] The fact is that pigs don't have a purpose. Just like, ducks don't have a purpose.
- Babe: [confused] Uh, I - I don't, uh...
- Cat: All right, for your own sake, I'll be blunt. Why do the Bosses keep ducks? To eat them. So why do the Bosses keep a pig? The fact is that animals that don't seem to have a purpose really do have a purpose. The Bosses have to eat. It's probably the most noble purpose of all, when you come to think about it.
- Babe: They... eat pigs?
- Cat: Pork, they call it. Or bacon. They only call them pigs when they're alive.
- Babe: But, uh, I'm a sheep pig.
- Cat: [giggles] The Boss's husband's just playing a little game with you. Believe me, sooner or later, every pig gets eaten. That's the way the world works. Oh... I haven't upset you, have I?
- [chuckles softly]
- Ferdinand: Look, there's something you should know.
- Babe: Yes?
- Ferdinand: Humans eat ducks!
- Babe: [Gasps] I beg your pardon?
- Ferdinand: Ah, most ducks prefer to forget it, but the fact is that humans like to eat plump, attractive ducks.
- Babe: Ohhh, I don't think so. Not the Boss, not the Boss's wife.
- Ferdinand: Oh, come on. Humans don't eat cats - why?
- Babe: Well, they're...
- Ferdinand: They're indispensable: they catch mice. Humans don't eat roosters - why? They make eggs with the hens and wake everyone up in the morning.
- Babe: Right.
- Ferdinand: I tried it with the hens: it didn't work. So I turned to crowing, and lo! I discover my gift. But no sooner do I become indispensable than they bring in a machine to do the job. Ohhhh-oh-oh. the treachery of it - a mechanical rooster!
- [Babe sees the wild dogs attacking Maa]
- Narrator: Now the pig understood why the sheep called all dogs 'wolves'. And he was filled with a deep and terrible rage.
- Babe: Was Rex a champion?
- Fly: He had the makings of the greatest champion there ever was. But it wasn't to be.
- Babe: What happened?
- Fly: A while back, when Rex was in his prime, the winter rains brought a great flood to the valley. Rex and the Boss got most of the flock onto the high ground. Then Rex went back to look for the strays. He found them. They'd been stranded by the rising water. He tried to herd them across to safety, but they wouldn't budge. Too scared and too stupid to save their own skins. It was freezing cold and the water kept rising. Rex stayed with them right through the night. By morning, the sheep were drowned. And when they found Rex, he was barely alive.
- Babe: Oh, Mum.
- Fly: Two weeks' rest in front of the fire saw him back on his feet, but his *hearing* was never the same again. He'd never want anyone to know, but... he's almost totally deaf.
- Babe: Is that why he's so - you know - angry?
- Fly: That's not the half of it. All this was barely a month before the Grand National Challenge. He tried his best, but he couldn't hear the Boss's calls, and it slowed him up. The cold truth is that, but for the stupidity of sheep, Rex would've been the champion of champions.
- Country Woman: [hearing on TV that A. Hoggett and his entry Pig about to perform on the sheepdog trial] Is that Hoggett?
- Country Woman: I think it was.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Huh?
- Valda: He said Hoggett. It was clear as a bell.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Well, must be another Hoggett. We only have the two dogs and they certainly... aren't...
- [the country women stare at Esme who then rolls her eyes in exasperation]
- Narrator: Fly decided to speak very slowly, for it was a cold fact of nature that sheep were stupid, and there was nothing that could convince her otherwise.
- Fly: Please, someone tell me... what happened this morning.
- Narrator: The sheep decided to speak very slowly, for it was a cold fact of nature that wolves were ignorant, and there was nothing that could convince them otherwise.
- Sheep: Babe came. He saved us.
- Son-in-Law: Hey, hey, Dad says his little porker's a watchpig.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Dearie me! If it's not a duck that thinks it's a rooster, it's a pig that thinks it's a dog!
- [everyone laughs as Rex grows jealous]
- Son-in-Law: 'A pig that thinks it's a dog'!
- Valda: [while comforting Esme crying over Arthur's dog trial with Babe] There, there, Esme, it's not the end of the world, you know.
- Old Ewe: We've got something here that might be of use to our pig.
- Sheep, Sheep, Sheep: Password! Password!
- Old Ewe: Before we gives you anything, wolf, you'll be making us a solemn promise.
- Rex: Yes?
- Sheep: Treat us civil!
- Old Ewe: Yes, you gotta treat us nice-like.
- Rex: I'll try.
- Sheep: No biting!
- Old Ewe: That's right, wolf must avoid biting us sheep at all costs.
- Rex: All right. I'll try that too. I'll try.
- Old Ewe: But the most important of all, you must promise never ever to let this password we be about to give to be used against any sheep anywhere.
- Rex: I promise you that; I'll make make sure that the pig knows it too.
- Old Ewe: We have the promise!
- Sheep: 'Tis for Babe!
- Sheep: It's for his sake!
- Sheep: Maa would've wanted it.
- Old Ewe, Sheep, Sheep, Sheep: Baa-ram-ewe. Baa-ram-ewe. To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true. Sheep be true. Baa-ram-ewe.
- Narrator: [as Fly and Rex's puppies are being sold] The time comes for all creatures when childhood ends and the doorway opens to life as an adult. And so it was with Fly's pups. Though that time was all too soon for Fly.
- The Vet: He's got a cold, but that doesn't explain a pig not eating. He's got me stonkered, Arthur. But I can tell you this. If you don't get some fluids into him soon, you're gonna lose him.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Are you doing him tonight then?
- Farmer Hoggett: Mmm.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Good. The blood'll drain by morning.
- Farmer Hoggett: Pity...
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: What's that?
- Farmer Hoggett: Nothing.
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: What on Earth are you babbling on about?
- Farmer Hoggett: ...Shame, to miss out on the best ham prize at next year's fair, is all. Nice plump haunches he's getting... Beautiful. Still... silly to wait, I suppose.
- [Esme stares at him]
- Babe: [relieved that he's alive] Ferdinand!
- Cow: If you're out here, who's that in there?
- Ferdinand: Her name's Rosanna.
- [They watch the Hoggett family carve the roast duck]
- Ferdinand: Why Rosanna? She - she had such a beautiful nature.
- Babe: Oh, Ferdinand...
- Ferdinand: I can't take it anymore.
- Cow: [disapprovingly] Really.
- Ferdinand: The fear's too much for a duck. It - it eats away at the soul! There must be kinder dispositions in far-off gentler lands.
- Cow: The only way you'll find happiness is to accept that the way things are is the way things are.
- Ferdinand: 'The way things are' stinks! I'm not gonna be a goner, I'm gone! I wish all of you the best of luck.
- Narrator: It was at that time that Mrs. Hoggett began to worry about her husband. But Farmer Hoggett knew that little ideas that tickled and nagged and refuse to go away should never be ignored. For in them, lie the seeds of destiny.
- [as Babe and Farmer Hoggett meet for the first time]
- Narrator: The pig and the farmer regarded each other. And for a fleeting moment, something passed between them. A faint sense of some common destiny.
- The Hoggetts' granddaughter: [opens her present to reveal the beautiful dollhouse Mr. Hoggett made; begins crying] Wwwwaaaaaahh!
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: Oh, what's wrong, dear?
- The Hoggetts' granddaughter: [sobs] It's the wrong one. I WANT THE HOUSE I SAW ON THE TELEVISION!
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: [consoles her] Oh, there, there.
- [Babe's first attempt to herd sheep just got him laughed at]
- Babe: This is ridiculous, Mum!
- Fly: Nonsense. It's only your first try. But you're treating them like equals. They're sheep; they're inferior.
- Babe: Oh, no, they're not.
- Fly: Of course they are. We are their masters, Babe. Let them doubt it for a second and they'll walk all over you!
- Rex: Fly! Get the pig out of there!
- Fly: Make them feel inferior - abuse them, insult them.
- Rex: Fly!
- Babe: They'll laugh at me.
- Fly: Then bite them! Be ruthless. Whatever it takes, bend them to your will.
- Rex: Enough!
- Fly: Go on, go!
- [Babe, having entered the butcher shed by mistake, sees Ferdinand, covered in yellow paint and flecks of dirt]
- Babe: Ferdinand! Everyone's been looking for you!
- Ferdinand: Shh!
- Babe: [talks softly] What is this place?
- Ferdinand: [whispers] What's happening out there?
- Babe: Well, Rex isn't very happy. Boy, all these new rules! See, I'm not allowed to--oops!
- Ferdinand: Not allowed to what?
- Babe: [remembering Rex to not talk to Ferdinand, mumbles with his mouth closed] Allowed to speak to you.
- Ferdinand: Huh?
- Babe: [muffled still] Allowed to speak with you.
- Ferdinand: What?
- Mrs. Esme Hoggett: [faintly] Pig, pig, piggy!
- Ferdinand: [panics hearing her] You didn't see me, all right?
- Babe: And--and I didn't see you, all right? Oops.
- [Babe runs out of the shed]
- Narrator: When embarking on an audacious crime, a duck needs a willing accomplice. A creature who is reliable, beyond suspicion, and above all... extremely gullible.
- [Ferdinand and Babe are planning to steal the Alarm clock behind the dog house outside the Hoggett farm house]
- Babe: So I go through the kitchen, across the living room.
- Ferdinand: Good, good, good!
- Babe: I go into the bedroom...
- Ferdinand: Yup!
- Babe: ...Get the mechanical rooster...
- Ferdinand: Yep!
- Babe: ...And bring it out to you.
- Ferdinand: What about the cat?
- Babe: Oh, I'll *quietly* bring it out to you.
- Ferdinand: Excellent.
- Babe: I don't think I can do it.
- Ferdinand: Nah!
- Babe: It's against the rules. Only dogs and cats are allowed in the house.
- Ferdinand: I love that rule. It's a good rule. But *this* is bigger than rules! This is life and death!
- Babe: What?
- Ferdinand: Mmm-Hmmm... Follow me.
- [Ferdinand waddles into the dog house; Babe lingers at the entrance]
- Ferdinand: Hello?
- Babe: [Babe enters the dog house]
- Ferdinand: Look, there is something you should know: Humans eat ducks!
- Babe: [gasps] I beg your pardon?
- Ferdinand: Oh, most ducks prefer to forget about it. But the truth is, humans like to eat plump attractive ducks.
- Babe: Oh, I don't think so. Not the boss. Not the boss's wife.
- Ferdinand: Come on! Humans don't eat cats. Why?
- Babe: Well, they're...
- Ferdinand: They're indispensable! They catch mice. Humans don't eat roosters. Why?
- Babe: Well, uh... I-I...
- Ferdinand: They are indispensable. They make eggs with the hens and wake everybody in the morning. I tried it with the hens. It didn't work. So I turned to crowing... and Lo! I discovered my gift! But no sooner do I become indispensable, then they bring in a *machine* to do the job!
- [moaning in despair]
- Ferdinand: Oh-ho! The treachery of it... A *mechanical rooster*!
- Babe: Oh, dear me.
- Ferdinand: Oh, dear you?
- [Ferdiand sighs]
- Ferdinand: [forlorn] I suppose the life of an anorexic duck doesn't amount in the broad scheme of things... but pig... I'm all I've got!
- Babe: So... why do you want me to do it?
- Ferdinand: [groans] I'm allergic to cats.
- Babe: Oh.
- Ferdinand: [sadly] They make me sneeze.
- Babe: Don't worry. I won't wake the cat.
- [Babe heads for the dog door in the Hogget's front door]
- [Babe has driven away the pack of wild dogs that have attacked the sheep and gravelly injured Maa. The sheep have formed a circle around Maa's body. Maa moans in agony as Babe runs to her side]
- Babe: Maa! Maa! Are you alright?
- Maa: [weakly] Hello, little young'un.
- Babe: Oh, Maa... Can you get up?
- Maa: [voice growing weaker as she is dying] I... don't... reckon.
- Babe: [as the sheep sadly bleat Maa's name] It's over, Maa. The wolves have gone far away. I'll get the boss, he'll come to look after you.
- [voice breaking]
- Babe: You'll be alright... You'll be alright...
- [Maa lays her head down and breathes her last]
- Babe: [Reality sets in as Babe realizes that Maa is gone] Oh, Maa... Maa...!
- [Wails as tears streaming down his face. The sheep crying and bleating along]
- Babe: MAAA-AAAA! MAA-AAA-AA! MAAA-AAA-AA!
- Narrator: [Ferdinand has persuaded Babe to help him steal the Hoggets' new alarm clock] Now the duck knew exactly what he had to do. The alarm clock had to go. His very life depended on it.
- [Ferdinand and Babe peer into the Hoggets' bedroom window, seeing the clock on the bedside table]
- Ferdinand: Do you see it?
- Babe: Yes.
- Ferdinand: Good.
- Narrator: [after Rex , in a fit of jealous rage over Babe hearding the ship, attacked Fly and bit Farmer Hogget] A dark cloud had descended on the valley. And the pig felt that the troubles were all his fault. But he was certain that he knew how to put things right again.
- Babe: [trailer only] When I first came to the boss' farm it was a whole new world for me. Everyone there seemed to know their place. The boss, his wife, the sheepdogs, the sheep, and all the friends well almost except for Ferdinand the duck. Now I just have to figure out where I fit in.
- Rex: [having caught Babe wrecking the farmhouse to help Ferdinand sabotage the alarm clock] It was my mistake. I was trying to loosen things up a little. But no. Today proves that it doesn't work. From now on, we'll all respect the rules. To each creature its own destiny and every animal in its proper place. And a pig's proper place is under the old cart, not in the barn and absolutely never in the house. Is that understood?
- Babe: [reluctantly] Yes, sir.
- Rex: Now, Pig, regarding the company you keep. Being young, it's hard to discriminate, so I'll make it easy for you. I forbid you to talk to or consort with that duck ever. Do I make myself clear?
- Babe: What's consort?
- Horse: It means, young man, that you must not go anywhere near that duck.
- Rex: And as for the fugitive duck, when he shows himself, let him know this, being a duck, he must behave like a duck. No more of this crowing and nonsense. He should accept what he is and be thankful for it. That goes for all of us.
- Cow: Here, here!
- Narrator: Rex continued long into the night. Elsewhere, there was more talk. The subject was Christmas dinner and whether that year the main course would be roast pork or Duck a l'Orange.