The Water Babies (film)
| The Water Babies | |
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| Directed by | Lionel Jeffries |
| Produced by | Peter Shaw |
| Screenplay by | Michael Robson Lionel Jeffries (additional material) |
| Based on |
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by Charles Kingsley |
| Starring |
James Mason Bernard Cribbins Billie Whitelaw Joan Greenwood David Tomlinson Tommy Pendler Samantha Gates |
| Music by | Phil Coulter |
| Cinematography | Ted Scaife |
| Edited by | Peter Weatherley |
| Distributed by | Pethurst International Ltd. |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country |
Poland United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Water Babies is a 1978 live action-animated feature film, very loosely based on the book The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by Charles Kingsley. The film is directed by Lionel Jeffries.
When a 12-year-old chimney sweep is wrongfully blamed for being a thief, he makes a run for it and ends up jumping into a violent river. There he encounters a civilisation of anthropomorphic underwater creatures. Before he can return to the surface and clear his name, however, he must help rescue his new friends, the Water Babies, from their nemesis. Featured voices include those of James Mason, Bernard Cribbins and Tommy Pender. The film starts and ends similarly to the book, though in the book Tom actually dies, and is only allowed above the sea on a temporary basis. The movie also adds a whole new subplot, involving a Killer Shark, an Electric Eel and the mythical Kraken, who decides whether or not Tom can return to the surface. There are also several invented characters, whom Tom befriends on his quest: Jock, a Scottish lobster, Terence, an effeminate starstruck seahorse, and Claude, a foppish French swordfish.
Filmed on location in Yorkshire, England. Primarily based at Denton Hall, Wharfedale, early scenes are filmed in the city of York.
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