"Babies"


Beware the "Babies": although they are cute, they will bore you. From the trailer for this movie, I realized that it would be a documentary, which usually involves interviews and speaking; however, this movie does not really have any speaking scenes, and shows basically exactly what the title advertised: babies, from when they are born to when they finally learn to walk.

The four babies featured in the film are Ponijao, from Namibia; Mari, from Tokyo; Bayar, from Mongolia; and Hattie, from San Francisco. I thought that perhaps the parents would play a major part in the movie as well, but it mostly focuses on the babies themselves. When the parents do appear, it is only as background characters. At the beginning, we see the mothers while pregnant, and then the birth of Bayar; after that, the babies' journey begins. The only interesting thing about this film is that it manages to tell each child's story by showing rather than telling - by the time each of them learn to walk, we have seen them mature from being born, to crawling, to talking (words like "mama" and "dada," anyway).

I would say No, don't see this movie. I wanted to say that the trailer is misleading, in making me think that it would be a typical documentary, but in fact it has no dialogue, only a cute song in the background. The movie is short, clocking in at around an hour and twenty minutes, but it seemed longer. In addition, the African mothers walk around mostly naked, and perhaps I'm a prude, but for a movie that is rated PG I was surprised to see so much nudity (even if it is "National Geographic"-style). If you want to see some cute babies, try an older movie such as "Baby Geniuses" or "Baby's Day Out" instead.

"Babies" premieres in theaters on May 7th.

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