Watch out! The 'Babies' movie is here!

In the 'Babies' movie, four squealing, gurgling, and padding goobers invade the world.

Just in time for Mother's Day, The Focus Features French documentary 'Babies' by Thomas Balmes opens at theaters this weekend. The film follows four babies – in San Francisco, Tokyo, Namibia, and Mongolia – from birth to their first steps, with mountains of diapers and oceans of drool in between.

Babies are everywhere

Did we forget a corner of the world in our gallery 'The Babies are coming?' From Burma to Macedonia to South Africa to Brazil to earthquake-stricken Haiti, there is a universality to babies.

Swaddled little hot dogs with chubby cheeks, wide eyes, and really cute feet.

IN PICTURES: Babies around the world

Related: 'Babies': movie review

Also factor in that distinctive baby smell that's part brand-new-life, and part Johnson & Johnson baby powder, the baby gurgle and squeal, and the taste of residual baby food after planting a large kiss on their faces.

And we can't forget about the baby wobble. Perhaps best portrayed by a YouTube clip of a toddler bopping Beyonce's Single Ladies music video, the baby wobble is one of nature's greatest dance moves.

It doesn't matter where they come from

Director Thomas Balmes told the Orlando Sentinel that he wanted the film to 'shift the perspective from us looking at the world from our point of view, to seeing it from the babies' point of view – how they see their world.' For Bayar in Mongolia, this includes watching a goat come and drink your bath water. With you still in the tub.

The Sentinel asked if, while filming, Balmes observed any "universal truths" of raising children:

"In the modern parts of the world," Balmes said, "we have tools - books and technology - to help raise kids."

"But as the film shows, a child in Mongolia can spend hours just watching the sky or a fly or the cat. He's the happiest child I have ever seen.

"And these babies were all loved by their families, loved in different ways. A loved baby has all the advantages, no matter where it grows up."

Always in the spotlight

Though photos of babies from around the world possess a universality too – many babies are seen held, comforted, or looking out at the world with a sense of wonder – they also illustrate the babies' individuality and the unique circumstances of where they live and what they encounter.

In Denver, Colo., a baby is at a Rockies game with her father, chilling in a Baby Björn and decked out in purple accessories. In China, an overdressed baby is plunked in a bag as its family waits for a train during the Chinese New Year holidays. A child in Haiti sits outside a makeshift tent at a camp for earthquake survivors, and a baby in Sierra Leone is weighed at a therapeutic feeding center.

The differences can be about as stark as an Anne Geddes photograph and photos of babies dressed as famous dictators by Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan.

And a baby is a campaigning politician's greatest accessory. Politicians are constantly playing hot potato with babies at rallies, smiling and cooing at them in restaurants, and ticking away votes in their heads the whole time. Okay, well maybe not in George W. Bush's case.

But babies steal the show every time.

Two words: constant supervision

Improvising Fatherhood's blogger Nate Smith describes his son Chandler as 'spurting' from place to place with ninja powers. Turn your back and the crawling maniac is gone. In a second, he reappears underfoot. Smith swears he's seen his son in two places at once.

Balmes mentions that Bayar wanders into a herd of cows during the filming of 'Babies.'

It's universally known that you're not supposed to let babies out of your sight. But also that you can't save them from every bump, bruise, or wipeout. In the 'Babies' trailer, Ponijao is bitten by a sibling, Bayar falls backwards and dumps water on his face, and Mari in Japan face plants right in front of the camera while taking some of her first steps.

It's better to just have the camera ready.

IN PICTURES: Babies around the world

Related: 'Babies': movie review