The Boss Baby-2017

Director Tom McGrath

Voices Alec Baldwin, Tobey Maguire

Scott’s Review #713

Reviewed January 12, 2018

Grade: C

True confession- I was not expecting much from the 2017 offering of the animated film entitled The Boss Baby (a brooding, sarcastic newborn offered no appeal).

However, since the film was nominated for a Golden Globe award, I decided to throw caution to the wind and settle down for a viewing.

Predictably, the film fulfilled my hunch and resulted in a fair to middling experience—the attempt at a nice message was offset by cliched and silly characters and an overproduced film rather than a directed one, but it still held interesting and sometimes even beautiful visuals.

Seven-year-old Tim Templeton (voiced by Tobey Maguire), as an adult, narrates a story of his childhood days, living with his parents Ted and Janice, both busy marketing professionals, who work at Puppy Co.

One day, his parents return home with a bundle of joy in tow, Theodore Lindsey Templeton (voiced by Alec Baldwin), who immediately monopolizes their time and attention.

Isolated, Tim is envious and begins a rivalry with his baby brother, who is secretly a spy named “The Boss Baby” and has the mind of an adult in a baby’s body.

It is revealed that he is working undercover as a spy to investigate why puppies are now receiving more love than babies.

The duo eventually teams up and forges a bond to prevent corporate America from ruining all of the love in the world. The Boss Baby presents a positive, good message of love and acceptance, which is nice to see, but this message can only carry a film so far, and there is little else of substance.

As with many animated films, the story here has a “good versus evil” slant, which renders the film rather one-dimensional. We are instructed who to root for and who not to root for.

While challenging corporate greed is certainly a cause worth championing, too often I found The Boss Baby causing my mind to wander elsewhere instead of keeping me engaged in the story, which is not a good sign.

The target audience is relatively young because many sappy or juvenile scenes remain.

Closeups of Theodore and whimsical shots of his bulging eyes give the film cute, too wholesome quality, and predictably, there are the standard doody and poop jokes, which comedies do all too often to account for sloppy writing.

Comedy stalwart Alec Baldwin voices the character of Theodore, which makes the baby a bit more interesting.

Baldwin, fusing assertion and a touch of sarcasm into Theodore, makes him witty and energetic, but again, this can only go so far. By the time the film has concluded in happily ever after fashion, the once tough character has disintegrated into a hammy kid.

Older brother Timothy is excellent, and having Maguire narrate him as an adult is nice.

The central theme of sibling rivalry between brothers, especially the difficulty of some kids adjusting to a newborn debuting into the family, may encourage parents to make it a family outing and see The Boss Baby.

Sadly, the creative and unique sets of animations may be wasted on viewers seeking a good story. What a pity that The Boss Baby does not possess both qualities. The film is little more than adequate and will undoubtedly be forgotten.

Oscar Nominations: Best Animated Feature Film