RedBox Rental: Babies

Babies
Studio Canal
2010 - Rated PG - 1 hr 19 min
Director: Thomas Balmes
Starring: Bayar, Hattie, Mari, Ponijao

This one was a rental and it's a documentary, but I'd been hearing so much about it that I thought I'd take a peek and tell you what I thought.

Basically, Thomas Balmes follows four babies in four different parts of the world from "their first breaths to their first steps." Bayar is the second boy to a Mongolian farming family; Hattie is a first born girl in San Francisco (to a couple of hippy-ish parents); Mari is a first born girl in Japan; and Ponijao is the second baby for a woman in Namibia (she has one older brother).

There are no subtitles and no narrator; all you're asked to do is watch the babies. The film is well balanced between the four, and very well edited. Watching these babies grow, a few things become evident:

1. No matter what the environment is like, all babies show the same curiosity and wonder at their surroundings.
2. Babies don't develop exactly at the same pace, but the steps they take are nearly identical.
3. All babies, no matter the foreign tongue, babble the same ways.
4. Older siblings are going to lay the beatdown, even if a camera crew is watching.

Maybe it's because I'm a new mom, but this was really fun to watch. I'm sort of a documentary fan anyhow, though. Well, whatever. This movie is adorable and subtly educational. I probably won't own it, but I would recommend renting it.