Baby Geniuses

A 1999 action/comedy directed by Bob Clark and starring Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'s Kathleen Turner and Christopher Lloyd. Dr. Elena Kinder, CEO of the Babyco corporation, has formulated a method of child rearing (the Kinder method) meant to produce exceptionally intelligent children. To demonstrate its superiority, she arranged for a pair of identical twin boys to be born to a surrogate mother. One of these twins, Whit, was adopted by Dr. Kinder's niece, Robin, and raised as a normal child. The other, Sylvester (nicknamed Sly), was raised in a habitat in Babyco's secret lab, under the guidance of the Kinder method, along with a few other babies. The movie also establishes that babies have their own language and know the secrets of the universe, both of which are forgotten when they "cross over" at age 2. Both Dr. Kinder and Robin's husband Dan are researching infant pre-language.

Sly wants to escape the lab, and eventually succeeds, making his way to a nearby mall. Dr. Kinder quickly sends out some of her subordinates (referred to by the babies as her "goons") to find and retrieve him. The next day, however, Whit is taken to the mall, and is accidentally captured and taken to the lab in Sly's place, while Sly is taken back to Robin's house.

At first, Dr. Kinder is horrified when she discovers that she has Whit, not Sly, but then she decides it will be beneficial to her plan, and sends more goons to bring Sly back to the lab too. Whit and Sly organize the babies at the lab and Dan and Robin's day care to stop Dr. Kinder's plan.

The film was a box office bomb and was critically panned; it was ranked by leading film critic Roger Ebert as one of his most hated movies. Despite the film's failure, it was followed by a sequel, SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, in 2004, which was at the top spot of the Internet Movie Database's Bottom 100 list in July 2011. (On New Year's Day 2015, it was at #11; for comparison, Manos: The Hands of Fate was at #12. The original was at #88.) And even though neither of original films were successful, Clark planned a third movie, but since he died in 2007, it probably won't get made.


 * Bamboo Technology: One of the babies builds a camera jamming device out of miscellaneous parts and toys laying around, including a Game Boy.
 * This could be somewhat justified in that they might have the materials to build such a device in his room to nurture his intellect or something. This, of course, would raise the even bigger problem of why they'd be willing to compromise security that way, especially with a baby who's tried to escape previously.
 * Brainy Babies
 * The Cameo: Dom Deluise (or: that guy who keeps doing voice work in Don Bluth movies) appears a couple times in the film.
 * Dull Surprise
 * Genre Savvy: The two mooks under Groin Attack point out that Sly hitting them in the gonads with skis is something out of a bad movie. They are completely correct.
 * Groin Attack: Used by Sly and lampshaded by the victims, two consecutive times.
 * Growing Up Sucks: When babies turn 2, they cross over and forget everything they knew.
 * Shout-Out:
 * "Oh behave, baby!"
 * "She's Darth Vader in a skirt."
 * Stock Parody: Sly dancing in the white disco suit from Saturday Night Fever in the first movie.
 * Toilet Humor: "Diaper gravy!"
 * X Meets Y: Look Who's Talking meets Rugrats.