The Boss Baby (2017)

Review

97min

Genre:       Animation, Comedy, Family

Director:    Tom McGrath

Cast:         Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow…and more

Writers:     Michael McCullers and Marla Frazee

-Synopsis-

Seven-year-old Tim’s idyllic life with his parents is thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a bossy baby brother who commands the attention of the household—but there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this unique infant when he proves to be a cherub on a mission, in this Dreamworks animation comedy about sibling rivalry and family.

In an effort to strongly follow-up their 2016 popular hit ‘Trolls’ and regain some of the ground they’ve lost to the likes of Disney, Pixar and Illumination Entertainment—the folks at DreamWorks Animation wrangle together some familiar voices and instantly relatable themes, for their adorable comedy/adventure take on the ‘secret life of babies’ and where they come from, in this capitalist family parable about work-life balance and the true meaning of love.

‘The Boss Baby’ features the considerable voice talents of Alec Baldwin as a cute newborn brought home by his parents—voiced by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow—to the chagrin of their existing son and his new older brother ‘Tim’ (Miles Bakshi), with whom he develops a rivalry after taking over the house. But the feuding brothers reluctantly join forced under common purpose when the power-talkin’, suit-wearing baby reveals his identity as a an executive baby, on a mission to stop a conspiracy to re-direct the world’s finite supply of love away from babies . . . and towards something even more dangerously adorable.

Much has been made about this film being a not-so-subtle satire or parody about Donald Trump, and although conceivable that’s highly unlikely given it’s based on a seven-year-old story and the fact that—like most animation—it was a project several years in the making, conceived years before the tantrum-prone 45th President of the United States was even a realistic candidate. Which makes the comparisons a likely case of opportunistic publicity, or projecting in the eye of some beholders.

Although this certainly isn’t the first film to run with the premise of talking babies and their parallel lives, or project their unbearable cuteness on to the screen, director Tom McGrath and writer Michael McCullers cleverly combine these elements with a comedy-adventure meditation on corporatisation, and of course the Marla Frazee children’s book on which the film is loosely based—a delightful metaphor for the demanding and life-changing nature of newborns and parenting.

Taking both stylistic and narrative inspiration from the ‘Despicable Me’ series, among others, ‘The Boss Baby’ is both a family comedy—with plenty of sight gags and clever cultural references—and an action/adventure, with dynamic sequences which blur the line between reality and fantasy, in reference to the imagination and wonderment of children when it comes to playtime . . . plus no shortage of film references to boot.

The eclectic cast of voice talents add some charm to the movie, but ‘The Boss Baby’ is very much the Alec Baldwin show with the legendarily-voiced actor channelling his uncompromising ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ salesman character—and even directly referencing him—in a hilarious performance which gives life to a story which goes well beyond its source material, and it must be said stuffs it with more than the film can really handle.

‘The Boss’ baby has plenty of early promise and is clever and perceptive to a point, but the central metaphor and the basic premise is established and exhausted within the first third of the film, with the novelty of a ruthless business baby and the moral message losing its spark pretty early on. What follows is an increasingly saccharine, overcomplicated and run-of-the mill adventure animation, with as many action set-pieces as it can cram into a narrative which unwisely relies on random childhood fantasy to wring them together.

Ultimately even the comedy isn’t strong or consistent enough to hold this mishmash of themes together, making it an overcomplicated film for younger audiences and underwhelming for older ones. It seems that Dreamworks is perpetually falling behind the likes of Disney and Pixar when it comes to making nuanced, layered and thoroughly entertaining animation for the entire family, and the choice to go down the Illumation Entertainment road of flashy action, quirky characters and as many gags-per-minute as possible isn’t working either. Let’s just hope they find a balance which returns them to their glory days of ‘Antz’ and ‘Shrek’ . . . but only time and box-office results will tell.

The Bottom Line . . .

Despite some adorable animated cuteness, plenty of gags and a clever and perceptive but overstretched basic premise, ‘The Boss Baby’ struggles to balance its numerous components and relies too much on gag count and abstract flashy action sequences to make this more than a moderately enjoyable but one-dimensional animation . . . despite the talents of its star. While it’s a reasonably fun and forgettable way to spend an hour and a half, Dreamworks’ latest animated effort falls well short of the high standards being continuously set by its rivals.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Storks (2016)

Long after the employees of ‘Stork Mountain’ have switched from delivering babies to packages for their new company ‘Cornerstore’, an error at the factory leaves a group of misfits on a mission to deliver one last baby, while being pursued by corporate bureaucrats for their mistakes in this family animation from the makers of ‘The Lego Movie’.

Directed by  Nicholas Stoller & Doug Sweetland and starring Andy Samberg, Katie Crown and Kelsey Grammer among others.

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