The Boss Baby
THE BOSS BABY(U)
D: Tom McGrath
20th Century Fox/Dreamworks (Ramsey Ann Naito)
USA 🇺🇸 2017
97 mins
Animated
W: Michael McCullers [based on the books by Marla Frazee]
Mus: Hans Zimmer & Steve Mazzaro
voices of: Alec Baldwin (Theodore Lindsey Templeton (aka The Boss Baby)), Miles Bakshi (Timothy Leslie Templeton), Tobey Maguire (Older Tim), Steve Buscemi (Francis E. Francis), Jimmy Kimmel (Ted Templeton), Lisa Kudrow (Janice Templeton)
Many film fans were incandescent with rage when this film was nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar ahead of The Lego Batman Movie, but the truth is The Boss Baby really isn't a bad film at all. In fact, it's perfectly fine for all-round family entertainment.Â
The story starts with Tim, a 7-year-old boy with an exuberant imagination, who finds out that he's soon to have a baby brother. Within the following days, a baby in a business suit comes into his home and is gaining all the attention from the parents, much to Tim's annoyance.  Tim soon discovers that his new brother can talk and is arranging business meetings with other neighbourhood babies, brainstorming a plan to put a local pets company named Puppy Co. out of business so people continue to find babies cuter than puppies.
The two brothers soon unite so the plan takes effect and people keep making babies.
For young kids, this will be a very enjoyable film, with a high standard of computer animation you'd expect from Dreamworks studios. There are some clever in-jokes for adults, such as references to Alec Baldwin's yuppie character in Glengarry Glen Ross.Â
Perhaps it should make it clearer that the entire story is taking place in Tim's imagination, but it does have good morals about the importance of family, fraternal relationships and teamwork.
A sequel is highly likely.
6/10
