TRAILER: Check out 'Babies' DOCUMENTARY: 'Babies' makes mothers' day 9 LIL' FACTS: How 'Babies' was conceived Director Thomas Balmès has a light touch capturing the captivating moments of early life. Our stars here are Ponijao from Namibia, Mari in Tokyo, Hattie from San Francisco and Bayarjargal, the only boy in the bunch, from Mongolia. In the joyous and buoyant new documentary "Babies," the filmmakers keep the baby — and the bathwater — and everything else about infants that makes them so appealing that the rest of us keep making more of them. Balmès found four perfectly adorable babies in different regions of the world — San Francisco, Mongolia, Tokyo, and the Namibian flatlands — and filmed them for about their first 12 months.
– Critics are generally won over by Babies, a documentary that follows four infants' first years in San Francisco, Mongolia, Tokyo, and Namibia. Some samples: Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: "As an advertisement for the wonders of figuring out how to be alive, the movie is an engaging proposition." Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "The 'awww' without the 'shock' definitely makes Babies a very huggable movie experience, just not a primer on parenthood." Claudia Puig, USA Today: "The photography is stunning," she writes. "The procession of youthful behavior is almost hypnotic, but Babies is delivered with refreshing immediacy and joyful humor." Eric D. Snider, Film.com: "There is almost literally no difference between watching Babies and just watching a baby. Alfred Hitchcock said drama is 'life with the dull bits cut out.' Babies is life with the dull bits intact."