The Water Babies **½ (1978, James Mason, Bernard Cribbins, Billie Whitelaw, Joan Greenwood, David Tomlinson, Tommy Pendler, Samantha Gates) – Classic Movie Review 10,370

The Charles Kingsley classic novel about the underwater adventures of a Victorian chimney-sweep 12-year-old boy called Tom (Tommy Pender) is filmed by the actor Lionel Jeffries as part live action, part animation.

The young sweep is unjustly accused of theft and runs off with his dog Toby, ending up jumping into Dead Man’s Pool, where he encounters various eccentrics and saves the Water Babies from the clutches of an eel (voice of Bernard Cribbins) and an evil killer shark (voice of James Mason).

The 1978 British-Polish children’s film The Water Babies is pleasant and entertaining enough for youngsters, but nothing like the delight for adults that Jeffries’s The Railway Children was. However, it is given a lift by the nice adults like James Mason as Mr Grimes, Billie Whitelaw as Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby, Bernard Cribbins (from The Railway Children) as Mr Masterman and Joan Greenwood and David Tomlinson as tilted old couple Lady Harriet and Sir John.

The animation is by the Polish company Film Polski, while the British did the story, soundtrack, working designs and characters. The live action was filmed on location in Yorkshire, England, in November 1976, mainly at Denton Hall, Wharfedale, and in the city of York. The budget of £1 million was raised entirely in the UK and the film was shot without a distributor.

Also in the cast are Samantha Gates as Elly and Paul Luty as Sladd.

The voice cast is James Mason as Killer Shark, Bernard Cribbins as Electric Eel, David Tomlinson as Polar Bear, Samantha Gates as Ariadne the Water Baby, Paul Luty as Claude the Swordfish, Jon Pertwee as Salmon/Jock the Lobster/Kraken, Lance Percival as Terence the Seahorse, David Jason as Cyril the Walrus, Olive Gregg, Cass Allan, Liz Proud and Una Stubbs.

The Water Babies runs 92 minutes, is made by Ariadne and Studio Miniatur Filmowych, released by Pethurst International (1978) (UK) and The Samuel Goldwyn Company (1979) (US), written by Michael Robson, loosely based on the book The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by Charles Kingsley, shot by Edward Scaife [Ted Scaife], produced by Ben Arbeid (executive producer) and Peter Shaw, and scored by Phil Coulter.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,370

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