Farmer Hoggett was a quiet man who lived on a farm where he raised sheep and made champion sheep herders out of his dogs Fly and Rex. On a fateful day he picked a little pig up out of a box at the county fair and guessed its weight and both their destiny’s became one. Academy Award Winner and Best Picture Nominee Babe finally comes to Blu-Ray. As I slot this release into my collection I am finally able to retire my old pan & scan DVD copy.

QUALITY:
The Babe BD is a fantastic upgrade which still has some minor faults. There are a few soft spots where color and clarity get a little hazy. Example? In one scene at about 38:22 when Hoggett is repairing a fence the picture goes in and out of focus as if this particular spot couldn’t be repaired so your getting source material unresolved. There is also a bit of pixilation around 51:29 where Mrs. Hoggett turns to walk off, it flashes on the back of her sweater. Could be that the clarity of the picture is so sharp your seeing the white of her undershirt peeking out through the holes of said sweater but it doesn’t look good. There are some aerial shots that are a bit weak and some night time shots that suffer from a very minute amount of grain. Other then that I’d say about 95% of the upgraded BD film is super sharp and colors really shine through especially greens. One particular scene to look out for is when Hoggett and Babe first meet at the fair. When the camera squares up Hoggett’s face you can see every pore in his face, ever line. It’s a great upgrade but I wouldn’t say it’s the definitive copy of the film.

Audio is a pretty decent DTS-HD MA 5.1 which offers up a good pitch at dialogue, a bit of immersion when it comes to the busy farm, but I didn’t really feel that it was much of a step up. I expected it to be more grand but it just wasn’t.

BONUS FEATURES:
~Pocket BLU app  
~BD LIVE
~The Making of Babe
~Feature Commentary with writer/producer George Miller
~George Miller on Babe.

Now as I said, I have the pan & scan copy which unfortunately did not have any bonus features. The Widescreen Special Edition DVD of the film did though and most of them can be found in this BD presentation. The only thing new is the commentary track and what’s gone missing are three games that were included in the special edition copy which were; Farmyard Friends Game, Babe’s Challenge Game, and Sheep Ma-a-ath game. That the bonus features come in standard definition and are really nothing new it’s a bit of a soft spot in the packaging, but anyone who has ever seen Babe and loved it will no doubt make the purchase.