Water Babies: Creepy, weird, and strangely hypnotic

Is it worth your time?

If you like vintage animation that feels like a fever dream, yes. If you are easily unnerved by dolls that move like real people, absolutely not. It’s a short watch, so it won’t ruin your afternoon, but it might stick in your brain for a few days.

Let’s get the weirdness out of the way.

These little water nymphs look like someone took a bunch of porcelain dolls and dunked them in a lake. They wake up inside lily pads, which is kind of cozy, I guess. Then they spend the whole day doing… stuff. Mostly just floating around and looking at dragonflies.

It’s entirely silent, which makes the whole thing feel a bit like watching a home movie from a planet that isn’t Earth. The way they move is just jarring. It’s like they’re trying to be graceful, but the physics of the water aren't cooperating.

Odd observations from the pond:

• The way they climb onto birds to get around. Who authorized this?
• The lilies function like little beds. Very cute, but also very spooky.
• There is a distinct lack of any real conflict. It’s just existence.
• Clarence Nash is in this. Yes, that Clarence Nash.

I found myself comparing it to the vibe of Miss Evelyne, die Badefee, though this is much more focused on the surreal nature of these creatures. There’s no big lesson here. No grand narrative arc about the environment or anything like that.

Sometimes a movie is just a series of images of dolls in a pond. And honestly, that’s fine. It feels like the filmmakers just wanted to see if they could make these things work on screen.

The pacing is slow. Real slow. But you kind of settle into it after the first few minutes. You stop looking for the plot and just start watching the ripples in the water. It’s weirdly meditative.

It’s not as energetic as The Wildcat, obviously, but it has its own weird gravity. By the time they crawl back into their lily pads at nightfall, I felt like I needed a nap too. It’s a strange little artifact. 🌊