What's this? Why it's a movie review, of course.
Might it strike nostalgic feeling? Probably, this was a British movie so it may be unfamiliar to all those who are my American/Canadian Etc. audiences.
You might say this is pretty much me making a Wikipedia page of this movie or something because of everything I wrote.
Anyway, let's begin.
The Water Babies was a live action and animated movie directed by Lionel Jeffries and produced by Peter Shaw based on the original book written by Charles Kingsley in 1863 that was made in 1978. Yeah, this movie came out 115 years after it's original source material was first published. I do not know anything about the original book, but of course, I'd rather just discuss the movie, mostly because I'm more familiar with that. But first, "Raku!" I hear you ask, "What is a Water Baby?" Well, they are basically human characters that live and breathe underwater, but they don't have tails like merfolk do, that's the best info I can give you all.
Now, let's begin.
The movie starts by introducing us to the good old British city of York in the year 1850, where our main character, an orphaned, 12 year old, chimney sweep named Tom and his dog Toby are taken under the wings of a roguish sweep named Mr. Grimes and his lackey Masterman, they secretly plan to use Tom for business while they robbed a smart country house belonging to some upper class owners named Lady Harriet and Sir John, other people include the housekeeper, Mrs. Tripp and many other smart workers.
The house has a lot of chimneys and Grimes' plan was to make Tom clean the chimneys, while he stole some expensive, fancy items, while nobody was looking and pass them out the nearest window to Masterman. Meanwhile, Tom ends up getting himself lost inside the many chimneys, he tries to find his way back down the chimney that Grimes forced him to go up, only to end up in a different room entirely. That is when he meets a girl around his age named Elly, it turns out she too was orphaned like Tom was and is taken care of by John and Harriet as they are her uncle and aunt. Elly likes the conversation she has with Tom, but then they hear Grimes stealing items. When he's confronted by Tom, Grimes quickly pins the blame on him. Elly tries to protest that Tom's innocent, but the homeowners chase Tom, who tucks Toby under his arm and is pursued all the way to the river. With no other way to go and some mysterious guidance from a strange woman dressed in black, Tom jumps into the river with Toby!
When he's under the water, Tom changes from a live action lad covered in chimney dust into a cartoon boy in a clean, turquoise shirt, likewise for Toby turning from a live action dog into an animated cartoon dog, it takes a bit of getting used to and help from several frogs and fish, eels, etc, but soon Tom and Toby learn how to adapt to travelling underwater via swimming with a song about trying a little harder.
Once Tom learns to swim, everything seems fun, but the fun is soon over when three otters show up and one of them chases him and Toby. Tom manages to fight the otter off until he gives up. Tom tells the otter how he came from the surface and the otter explains that Tom needs to find the Water Babies in order to find a way to get home as they know how. So, off goes Tom and Toby on their adventures, little did they know the otter had given them the wrong directions on purpose. Along the way, Tom and Toby are eventually treated to how rough it gets underwater during bad weather when a passing thunderstorm comes by, treating them to rapids.
After the rapids, Tom and Toby decide to go and find some clean water to help themselves feel better. later on, they wind up meeting one of the first characters that Tom gets to meet. Jock the Scottish lobster, who had gotten his claw trapped in a lobster snatcher. It's a tough struggle, but Tom and Toby manage to pull Jock's claw free and they float back down before the snatcher reaches the surface. Tom tells Jock where he and Toby are going and he declares that getting to the mid sea would be very hard for some one like him and volunteers to accompany him and Toby on their travels, then he tells tom about the movie's animated villains, a killer shark, dressed in armour and a crown, with a moustache, his goal? Find the Water Babies and enslave them! Tom knows that he needs to find the Water Babies first, before the shark and his Electric Eel sidekick do. Jock gladly offers to guide him and Toby on their journey. Happy to hear this, Tom says the iconic words of the movie "High Cockalorum" (This is heard a lot, and sung in song with characters singing about what High Cockalorum means to them) and here we hear the song first time. Later, our heroes find an old shipwreck. There, they hear a horrifying laugh and believe it to be the haunter, everyone hides, but the figure opens the door and behind it, they meet the second character Tom befriends; Terence the sea horse. it turns out Terence has lived at the shipwreck for a long time, looking for someone to terrify. Tom tells Terence where they're going and he's really happy to have companionship and to show his new friends the way and share his beliefs in what High Cockalorum means to him.
As they follow Terence, our heroes have no idea that they are swimming right into a trap set by the shark. As our heroes venture on, the multi eyed bits of seabed (or whatever they are) attack and start grabbing our heroes, holding them down. The Shark and Eel taunt Tom about having him and his friends as prisoners while they enslave the Water Babies. Tom thinks he's never gonna see Elly now.
Meanwhile, Elly thinks Tom died in the river, but the housekeeper, Mrs. Tripp helps her feel better by using magic to help her realise he's still alive.
Meanwhile, Tom and his friends are still trapped by the things. Everyone's cries for help however wind up reaching the ears of a passer by. This passer by being my favourite character in the movie, Claude the swordfish. Realising the trouble Tom and his friends are in, Claude puts his chainsaw like sword/nose (Don't ask me how that works) to action and the valiant, French cavalier cuts our heroes free and fends off the seabed monster's rock throwing attacks with his tail.
When he hears High Cockalorum, Claude proudly tells them what it means for a French cavalier like himself. long story short, Claude joins the party.
Finally, after everything they've gone through, Tom and his friends find the home of the water babies.
Once there, they welcome Tom and his friends and even recognise him as one of them, much to Tom's surprise. Tom then tells them, about Elly and how he wants to go back to the surface to see her again and they say that only one being has the power to decide whether a water baby can return to the surface world; The Kraken. They say he is the terrifying lord of the ocean and lives in a place called the Other End Of Nowhere! They show Tom a tunnel with a "No admittance" sign beside it and tell him and his friends that, the tunnel leads to The Other End Of Nowhere and how two Water Babies went to find the kraken through there and never returned. (It sounds sort of dark, but it can be clearly assumed that the Kraken let them go to the surface)
Tom decides that's where they'll go, but first, everybody has to get some rest, which of course seems to be a good idea. Unfortunately, they are later awakened by the Water Baby leader, Ariadne who tells Tom that everyone has been kidnapped! The gate had been opened and the Water Babies heard the voices of their two lost friends and despite her warnings, they go into the cave. That's when Ariadne heard a terrible laughter from inside the cave. It doesn't take Tom a second to know who the culprit behind this despair is; the Shark!
Tom declares that they must seek the Kraken for help, so Ariadne bids farewell to Tom and friends, wishing them luck in rescuing her friends.
As our heroes arrive in the icy regions of the Other End Of Nowhere, they find a ladder made from ice. Knowing this is something he'll have to take on by himself due to there being air up ahead and only he and Toby can breathe it, Tom says farewell to Jock, Terence and Claude and climbs up the ladder with Toby.
Tom and Toby are taken to an icy cavern where they end up meeting a polar bear by the name of Archie who is very dissatisfied at their arrival and takes them to see a Walrus in a suit called Cyril; Tom all the while, protesting to see the Kraken. Archie finds it amusing how Tom is constantly using the word 'demand'. Cyril however tells Tom that he can only see the kraken if he tells him he can go, but Tom ends up finding a secret elevator and he and Toby slip inside and take it upwards, much to Cyril's disapproval, Archie still chuckling at Tom saying 'demand'.
The elevator takes Tom and Toby to a white land and there they encounter a large, white, electric ball with a blue man holding a sword with a blade made of lightning sitting on top of it. It is the kraken himself!
The Kraken sternly tells Tom he has one choice, if he chooses the right one, all will be well, if not, he would stay forever in his realm. Is his choice to return to the surface and reunite with Elly? or save the Water Babies from Shark Castle?
Tom chooses to set the Water Babies free, but the kraken has one condition. Tom needs to prove himself by using the help from his friends, his courage and his wits to defeat the Shark and Eel. The Kraken confirming that he will be watching.
Unfortunately, Cyril and Archie claim that their help in defeating the shark cannot be done, not without respecting formalities, extra hands and of course planning.
Later in the film, we see Shark Castle and inside the killer Shark, the Eel and all the shark guards are all asleep in their castle, but their slumber is immediately disturbed by our heroes laying a massive siege by bombing them with icicles and snowballs, then Claude cuts the bars of the Water Babies' cell freeing them and he, Tom and Jock escort them out, the Shark, on the other hand, ends up losing his temper when his Eel cohort shocks him after refusing to show gratitude for giving him his crown back.
Outside the castle, more sharks come out and pursue the rescue party, only to be stopped when Claude holds them off and Tom shuts the portcullis, trapping the sharks inside the castle.
Meanwhile, in his rage, the shark accidentally destroys his castle's support beam, thus causing his castle to fall apart, crushing (and possibly killing) himself, the Eel and all his henchmen.
Everybody celebrates with one last song of 'High Cockalorum', and then the kraken arrives. He is proud of Tom for his choice of helping others instead of himself and rewards Tom with the chance to go home. Before he leaves, Tom has a heartful farewell to everyone, before the Kraken takes him home again.
Once he's home, (in the live action realm of the movie again) Tom is grabbed by Grimes and he and Masterman go back to their plans to abuse him and use him as their scapegoat to steal more items from the country house again.
Inside however, Tom grabs a suit of armour and lobs it at his abusers, getting the attention of the homeowners and with that. Grimes and Masterman are found out as the real thieves and are later taken away to be executed. (not seen in the movie)
Now that Tom is no longer accused for being a thief and no longer being mistreated by abusive thieves, he is adopted by the homeowners, so he and Toby both enjoy a new, much better life. The event is even treated with a nice party, welcoming Tom to the house.
During dinner, Tom stands up and tells everyone about his adventures, of course nobody believes it, but they thought it was a very entertaining story.
Afterwards, Tom takes Elly to the pond and then sticks his hand in the water, that's when Elly hears the voices of Tom's friends. Excited, she and Tom dash back to the house and the movie finally ends with a still picture of the ending scene.

I'm going to apologise now for possibly boring you all and maybe even spoiling this film.
This movie is beautifully performed in the live action scenes and the animation is very nice, too, but it has occasional split second errors that I've seen such as a background character disappearing, or the background moving, I also believe there is a part where Claude speaks, but his mouth doesn't move.
Also, there is the two recurring characters in the live action world, there are the woman dressed in black as I mentioned before and a woman that performed at the carnival as an attraction called 'The bodiless woman' named Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. These women and Mrs. Tripp, the housekeeper all seem to have magical power and seem to mysteriously guide Tom in the film. but then again, what do I know? However, I recently read those three women were all played by the same actress, so would there be theories? IDK.
Apart from that, The Water Babies is a very interesting and fun movie and a childhood memory and I recommend checking it out.
Here's a link for the full movie if you wish to see it for yourself-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5sWuDupklY
Well, I hope you enjoyed it, this is my first movie review and most likely my last movie review as it took forever to make (also, to be fair I don't think this counts as a review)
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed and High Cockalorum!
The Water Babies Movie belongs to its respected owners.