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Babies

Lauren

The trailer for this upcoming movie on a year in the life of babies from four different countries reminds me how baby faces, baby bodies, and baby behaviors are so universal. Mostly it makes my uterus contract.

I hope it doesn’t fall into a trap of cultural stereotypes so we may all enjoy the effects of pure, uncut cute.

via Blue Milk

20 thoughts on Babies

  2. That last shot of the Mongolian baby reminds me of a few too many tub-baths, 35 years earlier and 12,000 miles away, in Beaumont, TX.

    And if you like Mongolian cinema (like I do), the semi-documentary films of Byambasuren Davaa are worth checking out.

  3. Ohhhhh! That was so precious, it made me cry, Lauren. The perils of becoming a grandma for the second time next year! 😉

    (((makes lots of cuddly, cooing, ridiculous grandma sounds to make babies gurgle delightedly)))

  6. I’m not usually a kid person but:
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWW SOOOO CUTE.

    @Erin, The two at the beginning are so cute- and whats interesting to me is just universal the “banging things together” thing is for babies. That, and dancing. They all seem to find that amusing.

  7. I was laughing till the end, but when that goat came near the baby I let out a small scream. What big horns! Just for the record, I don’t scream during horror movies.

  12. I’m gonna be the debbie downer …

    I love cultural studies and anthropology and all that. But babies are still not cute.

  13. This reminds me so much of the babies at the centre I work at. It’s amazing how recognisable their behaviour is. That bit at the beginning where the babies hit each other and bite – so much like mine!
    I pretty much turn into a bowl of jelly when I see babies so… EEEEEK!!!!! So cuuuuuuute!!!!!!

  14. I don’t think this movie is going to fall into cultural stereotypes. Mostly what I got out of the trailer was how similar the babies were as they tried to figure out their environments, and it looked like the grown-ups were interacting with the babies in similar ways.

  15. But babies are still not cute.

    You know, there’s nothing wrong with personally not finding babies cute, but when a substantial majority of people do, making a statement of fact like that just makes you look silly. It’s bad enough on Cute Overload.

  17. Hey there, Bonn.

    Yeah, I’m one of those people who looks at babies and tends to think, “Hmmm. Here is a small, wrinkled human. Everyone seems to be excited over this. How odd.” It’s always a relief when I find someone else who feels that way. Given the social pressure to find babies cute—especially if you are a woman—I quietly roll my eyes a bit when I’m surrounded by a crowd of folks in real life who are going into cuteness mania over a newborn.

    Conversely, I’m completely surprised that I enjoyed the trailer. Apparently, I can be humorously fascinated at observing a baby’s behavior even though babies rarely meet my criteria for my “cuteness aesthetic” to come into play. I suppose that’s a complement to the creators of the movie because I generally find that kids have to be at least one and half to two years old before the cuteness thing truly starts to kick in for me.

  18. I’ve seen the trailer before and am so looking forward to the movie. It’s not only a reminder of how universal some things are, but that babies can thrive in more than just overprotected circumstances.

  19. I must see this movie. So cute! I love the opening montage- reminds me of my own little ones. Speaking of my little ones, they insisted we watch it four times and made me put their names too because they loved it so much (My daughter is 5 and my son is 3). They love babies though- at all family functions, my kids are the ones fawning over all the babies and playing with them. I think this looks like a super cute movie and I already love how just the trailer made me think because my first instinct to the baby on the motorcycle was horror, followed by the realization of how much fun it looked like for everyone and how beautiful the setting was, and how my horrified reaction was response to the social pressure that tells you that if your child is not in the most expensive equipment designed to keep them safe possible, you are putting them at risk.

  20. I love the Mongolian baby crawling along the steppe at top speed. That’s a lot of space to crawl in!

    I’m not super into babies, but I think I’d watch this just for the Mongolian part–it would be so interesting to learn more about babyhood in a nomadic setting.

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