Babe: Pig in the City

(Universal)

Director George Miller has hammed up his sequel into a $90 million stew of ill-mixed ingredients; the main course barely survives. This time the undaunted sheepherding pig must accompany Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) to a state fair to cash in on his fame when Farmer Hoggett (John Cromwell) falls down a well, incapacitating himself and leaving the farm prey to bank creditors. Stranded in the city, the pig and his mistress seek refuge at a hotel inhabited by a grotesque clown (Mickey Rooney). Although touched with moments of hilarity and otherworldliness, this Pig in the City has lost its way.