Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

(Flash Review)With how overprotective and informed American parents are, ever wonder how parents raise their kids in other parts of the world, such as Africa? This dialog and narrator-free documentary visually show how children from birth to toddler age are raised and the perceived level of freedom the babies have. The film follows four babies from Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo. Babies in Tokyo are mainly in an apartment or at the park compared in contrast by the babies in Namibia who are allowed to roam free in the dirt and around loose and tame animals. Mongolia was similar where a woman went bike riding while holding her newborn. Can't see that ever in America! Many comparisons were how siblings would argue and hit each other, throw tantrums and how all parents snuggled with their babies. Anyway, this had good cinematography and let the viewer relate to the scenes in their own way and it was a unique assembly of footage.

We have a 5 weeks old baby. It was great - and very interesting to see this movie, primarily because you never take a peak into lives of forgotten African (Namibian) or Asian (Mongolian) cultures and from Europe Tokyo, Japan seemed very unusual toothere is plenty of cuteness and tranquility in the fact that the 4 babies reach age 1 without any major issues. It calms you down as a parentapart from babies you see beautiful landscapes and animals tooBUT: this movie fails to address the facts that living anywhere as a baby in the world is NOT the same (2 out of 1000 infants die in Japan while 36 do in Namibia, not to mention diseases, pain, etc.)we see the good, the smile, the cute and we see... ...boredom. But many of the other emotions as worries, health issues, etc. seem non-existentyou need to think long and hard until practices like circumcision and excision come to your mindAll-in-all: a good movie. Cute. Will make you smile. Will make you laugh. You might get some ideas what to do with your baby. Will make you think everything's all right. In Black Africa too. Don't expect a too much in-depth experience.

"Babies" follows four babies from birth to first steps. One is in Namibia, one Mongolia, one Japan and one in San Francisco. There is no commentary or dialogue. You won't learn anything about babies unless you can pick it up from observation. The most interesting babies are those in Namibia who are free to explore their environment including the dirt and animals. Almost never does mother interfere, though she keeps a constant eye on them. The Namibians and Mongolians live with animals as part of the family, goats, dogs, roosters, cows... The sanitised life of the little SF girl seemed so sterile and uninteresting in comparison. The babies are not presented as cute, but as intelligent new little humans trying to figure out how life works. The hygiene in Namibia and Mongolia is alarming to us westerners, but the babies seem to thrive anyway.I was the eldest of five kids, so the way I remember babies is endless diapers to change and bottles to feed and crying. There was almost none of that here. The babies hardly ever cried, and never for more than a minute.They don't tell you the sexes of the babies. It is interesting the way clues get gradually revealed in the way they dress and handle the children, until gender is physically obvious as 4 year olds.

My (pregnant)wife and i just returned from a little movietheater in the city of Utrecht where we saw the movie with eight other people. But the sun was shining bright, so that may be the reason for so little people in the theater.A true documentary as a documentary should be. Just let the pictures speak. No comments, no translations, just the pictures.The documentary shows periods in the babies lives. In my view all four babies are shown in all the different periods and parts of their lives; how they play, how they are fed etc.Fine camera-work and a non-disturbing soundtrack. Absolutely a must see for parents who are pregnant !