'The Boss Baby: Family Business' Review
PG: Rude humor, mild language and some action
Runtime: 1 Hrs and 47 Minutes
Production Companies: DreamWorks Animation
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Tom McGrath
Writer: Michael McCullers
Cast: Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Eva Longoria, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Jeff Goldblum
Release Date: July 2, 2021
Theaters & Peacock
Tim and his Boss Baby little bro Ted have become adults and drifted away from each other. Tim is now a married dad. Ted is a hedge fund CEO. But a new boss baby with a cutting-edge approach and a can-do attitude is about to bring them together again… and inspire a new family business. Tim and his super-mom wife Carol live in the suburbs with their super-smart 7-year-old daughter Tabitha, and super-cute new infant Tina. Tabitha, who's at the top of her class at the prestigious Acorn Center for Advanced Childhood, idolizes her Uncle Ted and wants to become like him, but Tim worries that she's working too hard and is missing out on a normal childhood. When baby Tina reveals that she's—ta-da!—a top-secret agent for BabyCorp on a mission to uncover the dark secrets behind Tabitha's school and its mysterious founder, Dr. Erwin Armstrong, it will reunite the Templeton brothers in unexpected ways, leading them to re-evaluate the meaning of family and discover what truly matters.
Dreamworks Animation’s theme this year is “unwanted sequels nobody asked for but we’ll make it anyway.” A few weeks back they released Spirit Untamed, which was so unnecessary that the only thing it had going for it was Taylor Swift’s version of “Wildest Dreams” (used solely for promos). Out of all the Dreamworks properties to receive sequels, nobody expected—let alone wanted—one for The Boss Baby. But that damn thing made MONEY in 2017 and somehow nabbed a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination despite being one of the most mediocre efforts from the studio. Alas, despite contrary belief, The Boss Baby: Family Business is not only far superior to its predecessor, but it’s also really good.
Unlike Spirit Untamed, Family Business was made internally at the Glendale campus/homes during COVID. There is nothing but top-notch Dreamworks animation quality put into the production and it shows. Much like its predecessor, the film is bright, vibrant, colorful, frenetic with its movement, and also visually imaginative. In my review of the previous film, I wrote that at times it felt like I was watching The Backyardigans with the imaginary fantasy sequences; the character lighting matches the background’s various art styles. That remains present in this film through Tim (a charming James Marsden replacing Tobey Maguire), who grew up while holding onto his vivid imagination from his youth. Though he’s very much your typical man-child of sorts, he’s a loving stay-at-home dad who provides nothing but support for his breadwinning wife (Eva Longoria), booksmart daughter Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), and boss baby Tina (Amy Sedaris). The imagination sequences are still as gorgeous as ever and work in context through the story itself. While the motion is still manic with enough movement to keep the younger audience at bay, there are some exhilarating set pieces to accompany it. Director Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Megamind) is no stranger to delivering fast-paced action that stands out as the highlight of his features and there’s one action-packed chase sequence in this film that was more exhilarating to me than all the car chases in F9. Yeah, I went there. Fight me.
With Family Business, the team surprisingly crafted a tighter narrative that has more charm and heart. Tim is now a grown man who has drifted apart from his baby brother Ted (Alec Baldwin) and fears he’ll do the same with his eldest daughter Tabitha who is trying to grow up way too fast. She rejects his hugs and is more focused on her education than being a kid. The rift between Tim and Tabitha is genuine, much like the relationship between Katie Mitchell and Rick Mitchell in The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, where they are of different mindsets and never bicker. The basis of the emotion is present and whenever the film focuses on the daddy-daughter bond, that’s when the heart is at its absolute best. The film cleverly calls out the predecessor’s downfalls while enacting a much more cohesive and driving plot. The spy mission this time around is a decent setup that is effective as far as stakes and logic (I use that word loosely) go. The puppies taking over parents’ hearts were just… bad. But this time around you have a James Bond-like antagonist in Dr. Erwin Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum), the principal of an academia-oriented chain of schools Tim’s daughter attends designed to mask for a baby/kid revolution. The way that writer Michael McCullers (who also penned the last film) strings this proactive plot together while balancing the spy thing with Tim and Ted’s bonding, and Tim reconnecting with his daughter, works far better than expected. It’s not perfect, but there’s a clear effort and vision for this story that ultimately won me over.
Do you know the saying “don’t fix what ain’t broke”? Despite many elements of the previous film being broken on arrival, some things aren’t improved on, which is fine, I guess. I know I’m not a kid and this is very much designed for a young demographic, but man, if you’re gonna call out your previous entry for not making sense, you gotta at least try to fix the plot holes. The self-appointed rules of Babycorp itself are downright broken this time around where the “memory wipe” aspect is fully dropped as a loophole for story purposes. The movie tries to have its cake and eat it too by doing this family reconnection story along with the spy stuff. The weakest element is Tim and Ted’s brotherhood, which is treated more like a subplot than its primary driving force. When it goes into why their relationship fell apart it’s genuinely enticing but all the story beats are rushed and go through the motions when you know there could’ve been more. The film is much longer than the first and there are integral moments that could've been utilized to tighten the relationship between the two as they got older. Tim and Ted spend far too much time separated on the mission itself that when it’s time for the two to finally face the music and come together, it’s not as emotionally effective despite its initial potential.
The humor is mixed as it leans heavily into old-school slapstick, hyper-animated movement, and bizarre visual gags rather than having clever jokes and writing. I didn’t laugh at loud very often and honestly, the previous film was stronger in the joke department. At least it didn’t have me cringing at some of its offbeat humor.
Someone who disappointingly takes a backseat but deserved more time in the spotlight was Amy Sedaris as Tim’s titular boss baby daughter, Tina. She’s mostly used as a crutch to make Tim and Ted younger again, pulling a 17 Again-like move when in reality, she’s the best character. Amy Sedaris is already a national treasure, so hearing her as a boss baby of her own, cracking jokes, calling her elders “boomers”, and having fun banter with everyone she interacts with is so much fun. She undoubtedly has the best lines of dialogue in the film but she’s hardly featured. The story comes to a point where she just becomes more of a reactionary device to her dad and uncle’s antics that jeopardize the current mission rather than taking matters into her own hands. There was not enough Amy Sedaris, and for that, I would like to bawl like a baby myself.
Despite it all, The Boss Baby: Family Business is surprisingly decent. It’s not perfect or great to any stretch of the imagination, but as far as being a sequel to a mediocre animated film goes, it gets the job done. It’s likely to charm families and kids alike. I kind of wish that Universal had pushed this to a Christmas release date since this is literally a Christmas movie… that’s being released in July. If this was directed or written by Shane Black, this would be normal because that man just loves Christmas.
