The Boss Baby
(2017)Born leader.
DreamWorks animated comedy about a seven-year-old who is suspicious of his new, suit-wearing, business call-making baby brother voiced by Alec Baldwin. Voice cast also includes Steve Buscemi and Lisa Kudrow.
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Directed by Tom McGrath
Starring Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Miles Bakshi, Tobey Maguire, ViviAnn Yee, Eric Bell Jr.
Written by Michael McCullers (based on the children's book of the same name by Marla Frazee)
Studio DreamWorks Animation
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 6 providers
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The Boss Baby
BY Alissa-Warren superstar
Watched this with my 7year old and I must say it's actually quite good, more enjoyable then I expected. A fresh take on the "where do babies come from?" shtick. There's plenty to keep the young and not so young amused and it has the usual messages and lessons learnt. You won't be bored and the kids will love it
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The Press Reviews
Words like "inventive" and "inspired" are very rarely applied to the parade of cookie-cutter animated features that pass through the multiplex each year, but The Boss Baby proves a refreshing exception. Full Review
"The Boss Baby" still feels standard issue and a wee bit tiresome. Full Review
What is clear is that The Boss Baby is a concept that doesn't work, whether it's taken to be aimed at actual children or at the subgroup of adults who might get fleeting amusement from an allusion to Baldwin's role in Glengarry Glen Ross. Full Review
All novelty value mined from Baldwin putting blunt business-speak in the mouth of a cute little bubba is spent very quickly here indeed. Full Review
Not even a mealymouthed attempt at political satire is ultimately enough to rescue "The Boss Baby" from its pervasive sourness and paucity of imagination. Full Review
It's a movie whose story is aimed at the siblings of newborns - the 8-and-under crowd, more or less. They'll follow the plot for most of the way; they just might be puzzled by their accompanying parent's reactions. "What's so funny, Dad?" Full Review
Its snappy, pop-culture-referencing script feels workshopped to death. Full Review
BY Liam Maguren Flicks Writer
Caught between a not-as-clever version of Pixar’s Inside Out and a way-more-original take on Warner Bros’ Storks, The Boss Baby might be the biggest surprise of the year. By using the imagination of seven-year-old Tim, the film reinvents that age-old question every child eventually asks: where do babies come from? Turns out, it’s a corporate decision that splits new-borns into ‘family’ and ‘management’. Yes, it’s bizarre, but to a kid, it’s no less bizarre than babies sprouting from cabbage patches or arriving via bird couriers (something the film happily points out).... More
The original picture book by Marla Frazee worked as a ‘what to expect’ for kids who never had a younger sibling before. DreamWorks goes one further by showing Tim’s side of the story. He’s confused, a bit selfish, but ultimately scared by the change. These are normal feelings for any child to have in this situation, and the animators deserve mountains of credit for making Tim emote this expressively in a way that should relate to young audiences.
Another additive, a subplot about puppy manufacturing, is brushed aside so fast you’ll forget it was even a thing until the climax shoves it right in your face. It feels like a blurred-out storyline, but at least more focus is put on Tim and Boss Baby’s brotherly bonding. Ultimately, that’s what matters.
Well, comedy matters too, and that’s where The Boss Baby truly bursts out the gate. Not since the underrated Penguins of Madagascar movie has DreamWorks been so gleefully chaotic with its slapstick humour. Not only does Tim’s imagination give the studio’s fantastic 2D artists more to do, it gives all the animators an excuse to go nuts – and it pays off.
Then again, if you can’t find the hilarity in seeing a brutish man dressed as Supernanny having his eyebrows ripped off by an abnormally large one-year-old during a Mad Max-on-training-wheels vehicle chase, this film might not do it for you.Hide
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