Bouncing Babies

Bouncing Babies (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Weezer's mother has a new baby in the house, which doesn't sit too well with him. Tired of being overlooked, Weezer takes the baby back to the hospital hoping that they'll return him to Heaven. This is a pretty cute Our Gang short but I'd stop a little short of calling it very funny. For the majority o the running time we have Weezer getting depressed that he isn't getting all of the attention and trying to get some but doing it in the wrong ways. This includes him fixing pancakes only to make a mess as well as a couple scenes where he throws glass into the road to get traffic to stop so he can cross. There are a few funny lines including some where Weezer tells his mom to dress him and let the baby dress himself. Chubby has a fairly funny cameo dressed up as a devil and Pete the dog has a couple nice scenes including one where he helps Weezer dress.

An OUR GANG Comedy Short. When a new little arrival comes to Wheezer's home, he finds himself neglected & depressed. Unable to get any positive attention (making breakfast pancakes out of Plaster of Paris only makes matters worse) and wanting no more BOUNCING BABIES around the house, he decides to take his new brother back to the hospital and ask the nurse to return him to Heaven.

This is an adequate little comedy, but nowhere close to any of the Rascals' classics. Chubby is funny as a Halloween demon with a spooky voice. Wheezer has a very interesting way of getting himself & Pete across the very busy street near his home - but it makes you wonder why his mother would allow the tiny tyke so close to such dangerous traffic.

This is the fifth Little Rascals sound film, and it is particularly hilarious. The star of this 20 minute film is four year-old Wheezer, who successfully dominates the film. This is also the first film in which Pete the Dog has a prominent acting part, does tricks, and takes a key part in the action. (In previous films he had merely hung around in the background.) Pete pulls Wheezer's nightie off for him, and holds Wheezer's short trousers up when he is trying to get dressed. The dog also accompanies Wheezer on all his adventures and is his indispensable companion. There are so many sight gags and incidents in this short film that it is impossible to list them all. Wheezer's older sister is six year-old Mary Ann, who is just as charming and talented as always. Wheezer is feeling put out because his mother has had a baby, who now gets all the parental attention. Wheezer keeps trying to attract his parents' attention but all they can do is keep cooing over the baby. Wheezer's parents, who have a lot of speaking lines, are played by Dora Dean and Eddie Dunn, though they are uncredited, since grown-ups don't count in this series. Wheezer becomes so fed up he and Pete run away from home (again, as he does this often). He encounters Farina sitting on a bench and tells him his troubles. Then Chubby and some other kids in Halloween costumes (though it is daylight) scare them and chase them around, and Wheezer goes home. He then decides to take the baby back to the hospital and exchange it for a goat. He pushes the cot, which is on wheels, along the streets and across a busy intersection, not realizing that the real baby is still at home and the lump under the blanket is a doll left there by his sister. The nurses at the hospital agree to take the baby (doll) back and phone his mother, but say they have no goat available. So he goes home, where Mary Ann and her mother pretend to be weeping pitifully at the loss of the baby. Wheezer is upset, and says he will go and get the baby back, so he goes to the hospital again with Pete to retrieve the baby, only to be told that he is too late, because the baby has already been sent back to heaven. He returns and tells this sad news to his mother and sister. They say that if he will pray, 'like you did before the baby was born', maybe the angels will bring him back. So he and Pete the Dog both kneel down beside one another and earnestly pray for the return of the baby. It is remarkable how Pete really does look like he is praying. Meanwhile the baby crawls into the room, picks up a stick, and whacks Wheezer. I have omitted the sequence where Wheezer is 'fixing his own breakfast' and makes pancakes out of plaster of Paris. This is a really successful episode in the series.

Although Wheezer is the star of this story, I liked "Petey" the dog best. He was a talented canine. He even knew how to dress Wheezer, who would prefer having him mom do it. However, as she says, it's time for him to become a boy, not a baby. You see, he's jealous of the family's little baby because he isn't getting the attention he used to get. This is an age-old problem, as many families can attest.

Anyway, Petey has some funny scenes with Wheezer and even eats his pancakes, the poor dog - "poor" because the dumb kid uses plaster of Paris instead of flour! (Once again, Wheezer's mom told him to grow up and since she called him four times for breakfast and wouldn't get out of bed, he had to make his own which is like asking The Three Stooges to cook something!

Later Wheezer runs away from home with more funny comments and results, especially when (1) ghosts and goblins scare he and Farina; (2) he comes back and kidnaps the baby, hoping to bring it back to the hospital and trade it for a goat!

Overall, this turned out to be a good short with plenty of laughs. It also features a decent picture and cleaned-up audio, as it's part of the DVD set "The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection."

I like "Bouncing Babies" - the story is good, focusing on Wheezer's disappointment over the lack of attention he gets since his baby brother was born. Wheezer prays for the angels to take his baby brother home - and to his surprise, they (or rather the nurses at the hospital) do! What will he do now?

As I said, I like "Bouncing Babies," but its appeal is limited due to the harsh conditions of the soundtrack. This was a "sound on disc" talkie, which means that the soundtrack was synchronized on a recording disc with the film. Over time, the disc received its share of bumps and bruises, and the end result is a soundtrack with many pops and hisses. It really limits the enjoyment of the film, but try to have fun with it anyway. This was the last "Our Gang" short for veterans Joe Cobb, Harry Spear and Jean Darling, though you can't see much of them because they are in Halloween costumes (Joe would make a few Gang guest appearances in the 30s.) 6 out of 10.