Merbabies (1938)

Overrated

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It may have a whole lot of babies in it..sort of, but this isn't a short cartoon that I'd label as babyish, it's very sweet and fun and it's finely animated. I enjoy this a bit more than the Silly Symphony "Water Babies" of a few years earlier, it feels like a case of less being a little more to me and it just seems to be a little more relaxed about its tone. There's no real story, the focus is only on the beautiful fantasy of cherubic little angels under the sea who make their own underwater circus. And that was something really clever and interesting about this short, I love how inventive they were at making the sea creatures clearly represent various classic circus animals. I love how there's always little precursors to the feature length movies to spot in the Symphonies, like that whale is definitely a pre-Monstro right down to the sneeze, and that adorable baby octopus-elephant is so Dumbo! As is a lot of that parade of 'animals' come to think about it.. The lush artwork that's put into the coral backgrounds is amazing, it's just like a real painting you'd hang on your wall. I always generally notice the little details over the bigger stuff, like I enjoy the texture of the water as it swirls and bubbles as the Merbabies swim through it. And I love the magnificent richness of the closing sunset over the water. It looks so fantastic that to look at it I find it hard to tell whether it's real or not. It really is one of the most astonishingly beautiful scenes I've ever seen in animated shorts like this. Animating surface water movements must have been one of the hardest things to do and make look fluid and realistic by hand. I love how they appear out of bubbles and disappear the same way at the end as they break the surface of the ocean, no more than mere sea foam or so it would seem... As in Anderson's fairytale. I don't find it sad how it ends, it feels poetic and fitting to me. It's like they were a little touch of unseen magic beneath the waves. They can't die if they're not real, more like fleeting joyful dreams of the eternal crashing sea... I like it a lot, but I don't love it like I do some of the other Symphonies. Nothing spectacular about it I'd say, but it's simply precious nonetheless. One of many short animated works of, at their most basic level, pure joy put out by the vintage Disney studio of a very long time ago indeed for a world that needs it. If Warner Bros was good at making us laugh then Disney excelled at making us feel warm inside. Swim on forever Merbabies!

"Merbabies" is an 8-minute short film from 1938, in color and with sound and just like its prequel "Seababies", this one is by Disney too. This prequel had a major problem in the lack of a story really and this is here also the case. Still I believe this one here is superior because it actually has some funny moments, mostly involving the animals (posing as other animals) unlike the earlier film. The music is good and the animation is truly outstanding taking into account that this one here is almost 80 years old. The ending was quite brutal to be honest, even if I must say I cared more for the animals than the babies in this little film, so maybe that's why I wasn't that touched by the last scene. All in all, certainly worth a watch. Here is one example why the 1930s and 1940s are called the Golden Age of Animation.

My main interest in watching this Walt Disney Silly Symphony was in my knowledge that Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising-former Disney animators-were the actual producers of this cartoon but went to their former employer because their M-G-M contract had recently run out. Disney himself was looking for some extra facilities for his Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (which was released about a year before this short) so Harmon-Ising lent them some of theirs. The result was another of H-I's cutesy endeavors without much of a plot and little actual humor but as always beautiful animation. Besides the title characters, there's a circus-parade of various sea creatures performing with the whale providing the climax. Like I said, not very funny but if you love seeing good animation, Merbabies is worth a look.

Merbabies can be found as a bonus feature on The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea DVD. This Silly Symphony short is a cute look at how half-babies, half-fish celebrate a circus under the sea. For me, it was almost too cute. I kind of want to see more depth into the story, which may be difficult to do for a 9-minute Silly Symphony cartoon, but I point to The Old Mill on how that can be done effectively. However, I will say that the ending to Merbabies was kind of neat. So overall, Merbabies is a cute little film with crisp, clean animation.Side note: I found Ron Oliver's comments to be interesting on how this cartoon served as practice for certain scenes in Pinocchio. I didn't think about that at the time I watched Merbabies, but if I watch it again, I'll have to pay closer attention!My IMDb Rating: 6/10