Bouncing Babies (1929) User Reviews

Wheezer Learns A Big Lesson and Petey Helps Provide Laughs

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 16 May 2010]

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."

Scratchy soundtrack limits the appeal of "Bouncing Babies"

[jimtinder · 6/10 · 11 February 2001]

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.

Early Our Gang Short Featuring Wheezer

[Ron Oliver · 7/10 · 14 March 2000]

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.

Bouncing Babies was an amusing, if not truly hilarious Our Gang short

[tavm · 6/10 · 12 October 2014]

This Hal Roach comedy short, Bouncing Babies, is the ninety-third in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the fifth talkie. There's a new infant in the house and Wheezer is jealous of not getting as much attention as when he was the new one. When he asks for breakfast, he's told to make his own so he does. Eventually, he decides to send the baby to the hospital to trade it for a goat (Farina told him a tall tale of doing just that!). I'll stop there and just say that while I found this quite an amusing short, the pacing prevents this from becoming a truly funny one even when Wheezer uses several light bulbs to break in the busy street in order to fool running cars' drivers their tires are blown! A music score might have helped as well as a way to turn down those pops and hisses on the soundtrack. Still, Bouncing Babies is worth a look for any Our Gang completists out there.

Who would put plaster of Paris in the pantry?! And who would let a kid like Wheezer cross a major road like this?!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 14 November 2011]

This particular installment of Our Gang gets my award for Most Irresponsible Parenting. See the film and you'll know what I mean! The very beginning of "Bouncing Babies" is silent. I assume that some sort of damage occurred to the accompanying disc (as in early sound movies often the sound was recorded on a separate disc--not onto the film itself). That, or perhaps it was originally silent and sound was added later to parts of the movie--as parts of the film seemed a bit fast--which is what happens when silent movies are played at the standard speed for talkies (at 24 frames per second).

This film focuses on Wheezer. There's a new baby in the house and he's upset because mom and dad pay so much attention to the baby--and not to him (Mary Jane just seems to take it all in stride). So, he decides to fend for himself--and make himself breakfast. By mistake, he uses plaster to make his pancakes! Fortunately, using a gas stove he doesn't burn the house down or asphyxiate from carbon monoxide! This scene is pretty cute--and it works best with Wheezer because he was at his best doing things in the Our Gang films instead of talking (due to his age he often had trouble with his lines).

Later, Wheezer decides to trade the baby for a goat--thanks to a truly bizarre conversation with Farina. So, he packs what he THINKS is the baby in the crib and pushes it to the hospital--and asks the staff to for the trade! The nurse calls Wheezer's mother--and they decide to play a very funny but cruel trick on him. But first, they encourage this 3 year-old to repeatedly cross a VERY busy road! Despite some weird script elements, this is a much better than average Our Gang film. It's cute and funny--and well worth seeing.

A Few Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 4 November 2008]

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.

Wheezer has middle child syndrome.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 14 November 2019]

Mary Ann reminds younger brother Wheezer that she lost the attention of their parents when he was born, and now it's his turn to lose attention thanks to the presence of a new baby brother. Wheezer, feeling neglected, takes Farina's tall tale advice and decides to take the baby back to the hospital. Being Halloween, the gang gets together to scare Wheezer as he prepares to get rid of the cursed toddler, crib and all. Petey plays an important part in this episode, first dealing with Wheezer's plaster pancakes and later pls traffic guide. It's a combination of sentiment with a bit of a lesson in discipline, both for the confused Wheezer and the neglectful parents.

The biggest dead giveaway that this series is set . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 1 December 2017]

. . . and most likely filmed in Canadia is the fact that BOUNCING BABIES confirms that all street intersections in America's Threat to the North feature crates of large glass light bulbs next to lamp posts on every corner. "Wheezer," BOUNCING BABIES' featured juvenile delinquent, needs to cross a traffic-choked four-lane highway near his home on four occasions during this 21-minute live action short. On each of these forays into rush hour chaos, Wheezer first plucks a fragile glass orb from the nearest crate and proceeds to smash it into smithereens beneath the tires of on-coming cars. As the traffic abruptly comes to a screeching halt, Wheezer dashes through the carnage to the relative safety of the opposite street corner. If you've seen any old travel films from Canadia, you'll know that this was the ONLY way for Canadiayapper Pedestrians to navigate busy thoroughfares until 1994, when Canadia finally ordered its first batch of "Walk/Don't Walk" signals. Wheezer also tells his dog to "take my nightie off," and makes a batch of Plaster De Paris Pancakes using a recipe from a "Cooking with Gas by Sylvia Plath" book, but these are separate issues.

Trying to exchange the baby for a goat

[robert-temple-1 · 7/10 · 2 October 2017]

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.

Wheezer Shines But Lack Of Music Hurts

[Corr28 · 5/10 · 11 April 2009]

I hadn't seen this short for quite a while until recently. I certainly remember it from television back in the early 70's but watching it today is rather difficult. Young Weezer does shine in this one however. His attempts at getting dressed with the help of Pete The Pup are funny and his solution to getting past heavy traffic in the LA streets is quite endearing. What hurts this short most is the complete lack of background music and several short moments of silence. In less than a year, composer Leroy Shield would add his wonderful background music to the series but it's absence here hurts. It slows the pace and lessens the impact of what could have been several charming sequences. I don't want to knock the short too much because at the time this was made, sound was still a new device and proper ways to utilize it weren't fully realized but it is what it is and the silent background does hurt the overall impact in the end.

More of the usual

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 September 2015]

"Bouncing Babies" is a short film from over 85 years ago. Critics may say that if you have seen one of these rascal films, you have seen them all and I think to some extent it is true. The formula here is the usual: black-and-white, 20 minutes long, by Hal Roach and Robert F. McGowan and one of the gang is in the center. Here it is Wheezer, who is not a baby anymore, but still very young. Then again, the baby reference is probably about the little "brother" that he is so jealous of. I have seen some of these "Our gang" short films, but I must say this one here does not really stand out, so I cannot really recommend it. as always, it is all about the comedy and the few dramatic situations are just playful and not real, such as the mother crying. Not among the best Rascals short movies.