The Manosphere Hits The Maternity Ward In Celia Bullwinkel’s Wickedly Funny ‘Baby Bro’

Celia Bullwinkel’s new short Baby Bro runs just two minutes, but it hits with the impact of an R-rated punch to the crotch.

The film pairs classic 2D animation with crude, misogynistic rhetoric straight out of the manosphere, echoing the toxic vocabulary of public figures like Andrew Tate and Donald Trump. The effect is jolting: babies cooing frat-boy insults at their mothers, a collision of innocence and toxicity that provokes both laughter and unease. The shock doubles when you realize it comes from the same filmmaker behind Sidewalk, a tender short about a woman learning self-acceptance that has racked up just short of 100 million views on YouTube.

“I thought, what if these manosphere babies were born and started talking about their moms the way frat boys talk about women at a party?” Bullwinkel told Cartoon Brew, describing her latest project that tackles similar themes in a very different style.

The idea first surfaced seven years ago, during downtime between jobs. What might have otherwise been a timely project stretched into years of stop-and-start progress, derailed by the pandemic and by collaborators wary of such inflammatory material in an era when the internet was quick to pounce on anything potentially offensive said online.

“I approached people about doing voices, and some flat-out said, ‘I cannot read these lines,’” she recalled. Eventually, she found performers Brock Baker and Lyle Rath, who recorded their parts two years apart, later edited into seamless banter.

Staffing animators proved equally tricky. “Some people looked at the film and said, ‘I don’t want to work on this,’” Bullwinkel said. A handful of allies, including former student Michael Ruocco, background artist Wesley McLain, and animators Abigail Snyder and Marji Brodner, stepped up and helped bring the idea to life.

Festival programmers have also been cautious. While Baby Bro has screened at Ottawa, Woodstock, and Kaboom, and picked up honors at Laugh After Dark Comedy Fest and Boobs & Blood, many festivals passed with long, regretful notes. “I think people were afraid to share it because it’s controversial,” Bullwinkel said, reading between the lines of rejection letters.

Still, she is adamant about the film’s intent. “It’s a feminist film. It’s about misogyny,” she insists, and anyone who understands subtext or sarcasm would surely agree. By taking misogynistic language to an absurd extreme, Baby Bro forces viewers to confront an ugliness once relegated to bars and locker rooms but now increasingly common in public life. And to laugh while doing it.

Bullwinkel, who has worked in animation for two decades and now teaches at Cal State LA, is realistic about where the short might ultimately find its audience. “Festivals are one thing, but the internet plays by different rules. Sometimes the amateurish feeling is part of the charm. Honestly, it would be an honor if Baby Bro succeeds online more than at festivals.”