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Babies (2010)

tomatometer

70

Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 106
Fresh: 74 | Rotten: 32

Babies is a joyous celebration of humankind that's loaded with adorable images, but it lacks insight and depth.

83

Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 5

Babies is a joyous celebration of humankind that's loaded with adorable images, but it lacks insight and depth.

audience

58

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 33,698

My Rating

Movie Info

Re-defining the nonfiction art form, Babies joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all. The film simultaneously follows four babies around the world -- from birth to first steps. The children are, in order of on-screen introduction: Ponijao, who lives with her family near Opuwo, Namibia; Bayarjargal, who resides with his family in Mongolia, near Bayanchandmani; Mari, who lives with her family in Tokyo, Japan; and

PG, 1 hr. 19 min.

Documentary

Sep 28, 2010

$6.0M

Focus Features

All Critics (106) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (32)

The movie is pleasing -- who doesn't love gurgling babies? -- but as anodyne as a series of episodes from America's Funniest Home Videos.

May 10, 2010 Full Review Source: New Yorker | Comment
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Presents itself as an ethnographic meditation on the first year of life but is better approached as an "oooooh" and "awww" fest...

May 10, 2010 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Really, it's a nature documentary, except that the topic is human nature and the subjects are the only humans on the planet whose behaviour is unaffected by the camera.

May 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Blessed with no narration, an absence of gimmickry and an embracing love for its subject matter, Babies is as sweet, joyful and filled with curiosity as a you-know-what.

May 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Babies begins to gain telling traction as the small triumphs start to come faster toward the sixth-month mark. Things begin to look up once the infants begin to, well, look up.

May 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Watch a baby for a while and chances are you'll be entertained. Multiply that times four and you have BabiesM/em>, a documentary as funny, charming and un-self-conscious as its subjects.

May 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | Comment
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

On a scale of one to a hundred (one featuring no babies at all, and a hundred featuring all the babies in all of existence) this film could still only be classified as 'babies'.

May 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

We realise this is humanity at its most homogenous; we begin to go separate ways only when our surrounding culture shoves us into its own strictures

April 30, 2011 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

With deft editing, we journey back and forth sharing the first 12 months with each child. What impact does the environment have on each baby? That is the intriguing question and as we observe and decide for ourselves

April 30, 2011 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

Inaugura um novo gênero: o do "filme-awwwwww".

April 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | Comment
Cinema em Cena

It won't make a dent in the box office and it can hardly be considered essential viewing, but it's serene, unpretentious, and boasts more than enough cute moments to justify its existence. Parents, I imagine, will love it.

March 7, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture | Comment

A simple idea, but very nicely done by French documentarian Thomas Balmès.

March 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment
Guardian [UK]

The intimate footage draws attention to the obvious contrasts between plenty and poverty.

March 3, 2011 Full Review Source: Radio Times | Comment
Radio Times

Director Thomas Balmès has a hands-off and words-off style of direction. It's to be welcomed. We all know the sort of thing mums and dads say to babies, so subtitles would be extraneous.

March 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Eye for Film | Comment
Eye for Film

The baby stars were given the go ahead to improvise every scene. The magic came in the editing suite (Raymond Bertrand, Craig McKay).

January 3, 2011 Full Review Source: JWR | Comment

...an absolutely interminable piece of work that seems destined to send most viewers into protracted fits of daydreaming.

December 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

It has cute kids and cute animals, mothers and fathers interacting in interesting ways, and a demonstration of some cultural differences, too.

December 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

Because of the inherent adorability of the four stars of this French documentary, it's easy to forgive it for not delivering as much as it should.

October 1, 2010 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Because of the inherent adorability of the four stars of this French documentary, it's easy to forgive it for not delivering as much as it should.

October 1, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieMaker Magazine | Comment
MovieMaker Magazine

Precious as all get out...but it cries out for more insight and inspiration.

June 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Spectrum (St. George, Utah) | Comment
Spectrum (St. George, Utah)

This isn't a movie. It's a screensaver.

June 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | Comment (1)
Philadelphia Weekly

More like a home movie than a feature length film.

May 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

When forced to watch home movies %u2014 and this is simply a glorified home movie %u2014 most of us nod and smile and start checking our watches.

May 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Tri-City Herald | Comment
Tri-City Herald

A beautiful and entirely embraceable bit of cinema, and a welcome break from the pablum normally served up at theaters this time of year.

May 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | Comment
Times-Picayune

Babies is one of the most human fly-on-the-wall docs I've ever come across.

May 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Bright Lights Film Journal | Comment
Bright Lights Film Journal

For the first part of the movie the cuteness of the babies is enough but after that the sameness of the film starts to sink in and the need for something else arises.

May 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders | Comment
Entertainment Insiders
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Babies

Everybody loves... Good documentary! The film, stands on its own as a joyous celebration of the first year of life for four youngsters in different parts of the world. Filmed without narration, subtitles, or any comprehensible dialogue, Babies is a direct encounter with four babies who stumble their predictable ways to

February 21, 2011
xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
Manu Gino

Super Reviewer

When a sequel comes out I like to go back and watch the previous movies to refresh my memory so I don't miss anything. Well, in June we're having our first child, and what better way to get ready than to watch a documentary called "Babies." This is probably the cutest movie you will ever see. No narration, just four

May 16, 2011
Everett Johnson

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Babys (DE)
  • Bébés (FR)
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