When you start fast-forwarding, you know it's bad.I picked this movie off of Netflix expecting it to be a pleasant children's cartoon. Thankfully I have learned to pre-screen things, because this movie was absolutely terrible.Human misery, death, and suffering are not my idea of a children's story. This movie basically starts with a homeless woman begging for money for her newborn baby so they won't starve. We are then shown people stealing, beating each other, cheating, and human excrement being poured over food--all before we meet the men who are abusing our hero, Tom.All of this, meanwhile, is live-action. You have to sit through about twenty minutes of this awful display of inhumanity before you finally get to the cartoons you thought you were getting when you started, and then there's another 20 minutes of live action at the end, making for half the movie. I don't know about your kids, but when my kids want a cartoon, they want a cartoon. Not a bunch of folks wandering around London getting typhoid.The live-action plot then drags on and on with more of the cruelty. Finally Tom jumps in a lake and is--for no reason ever explained in the movie--transformed into an animated "water baby." I suppose that's a bit nicer than saying "Hey kids, he committed suicide and drowned." He makes some friends, sings some songs, encounters some random enemies, and finally finds the other water babies. This is the good part of the movie. But then the other water babies are randomly kidnapped, and Tom must go on a quest to save them.Tom then returns to the human world, where he is again abused and you wonder why he doesn't just kick someone in the groin already and run off. Finally he does stand up for himself, the bad guys are arrested and he achieves a Dickensian happy ending, which honestly I never did quite manage to understand (did rich people just adopt random street urchins?) and we learn that several creepy ladies who've been appearing randomly throughout the film are actually the same person, which doesn't actually add anything to the plot or make any sense.As a parent, I have seen plenty of bad children's shows. Heck, I've endured Barney the Purple Dinosaur. But this movie takes the cake. Yes, Victorian England was a terrible place in which children were abused and death might seem like a reasonable escape. This does not make it 'entertaining', for me or my children.

Like many, I first saw The Water Babies as a child/young teen in the late seventies/early eighties. It has remained with me since then with its catchy tunes, memorable portrayals, less-then-successful animation, and a story full of heart, coldness, and ultimately good vanquishing evil. Recently I sat down and saw it again after at least two decades passing, and I noticed THIS time around its striking similarities to The Wizard of Oz. No, these aren't blatant likenesses but hear me out. In this one we have a boy and his dog - having personal problems at "home," running away from something and in the scene right after they run away, changing the substance of their appearance. In This one, the boy and dog become animated. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and Toto are in color. In this one, the boy and dog are told they must find the Water Babies for answers and then ultimately the Kracken for guidance and he has the ability to let Tom go home if he shows he has courage, etc... In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy must also find an authoritative figure that tests her before he will allow her to return home. In the Water Babies, Tom meets three characters that will help him on his journey to the Water Babies - Dorothy has three helpers as well. When each helper is met, we are entertained with a rendering of "Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi, HI Cockallorum...We're on our way." In the Wizard it is "We're off to see the wizard." Dorothy has a good witch sort of look after her; Tom has a woman with many roles(Billie Whitelaw) do the same. If you look closely at the two, there are many other likenesses. That being said, The Water Babies is not a knockoff in any way, I was just commenting on the eerie likes between the two. This film has some solid performances from bad guys Bernard Cribbins and the always fascinating James Mason. The kids playing Tom and Ella are good. The supporting cast of Joan Greenwood(love her voice!), David Tomlinson, and the vocal talents of John Pertwee and Lance Percival add greatly to the mix. I must confess that the animation is less than sterling even for its time but is adequate enough to the challenge. The three animated characters that help Tom get home are all likable. I always have trouble picking my favorite between the French swordfish and the John Inman/Mr. Humphries like seahorse. The scene where we hear this guttural, maniacal laugh from a shipwrecked vessel only to see a seahorse with a huge polka-dotted bow-tie bob out always has me rolling! The Water Babies is a lot of fun. Sure, it is more of a children's film, but it has and always shall have a fond place in my heart. The bulk of the credit for what successes the film does have must go to director Lionel Jeffries. Jeffries is a wonderful comedic actor and his sense of humor is clearly evident throughout.

I watched this film from childhood - perhaps one of the first I ever saw (released when I was born)...I'm surprised it's marketed as a children's film, there are many aspects of this film to which children should be ignorant. The best actor by far is David Tomlinson, never failing to bring a smile to my face. As for the rest of the cast - Very odd indeed.I would not recommend this film personally. It looks dated, and the songs are pretty repetitive. I suggest Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks for children. Also, it would be difficult to locate this film nowadays, it never was released on DVD to my knowledge. The above films present a far more relaxed environment: With this film, it's hard to tell. I can tell that I am not the only one that feels this way about the film, but I still respect it, as I watched it at childhood and it was the first "scary" film I ever saw!Five out of Ten.

I saw this movie as a child and fell in love with it. It has a sweet sensitive story. Something children can appreciate. I loved so much as a child I had to find it for my daughter. It is definitely a movie I would watch with kids. It reminds me a great deal of story's of a Disney nature like Pete's Dragon and Mary Poppins. Both because of the live action and cartoon features but on its premise. It is also a good story to show kids that if they tell the truth they can be trusted and adults will listen to them. I think all kids should see it and would enjoy it. It is such a break from the violent movies of bad taste so many kids watch these days. It has all the charming qualities so many of today's movies don't have.