The Boss Baby Review

PG: Some Mild Rude Humor

20th Century Fox, Dreamworks Animation

1 Hr and 37 Minutes

Voice Cast: Alec Baldwin, Miles Bakshi, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire

REVIEW: For the past several years, Dreamworks Animation movies had become more like a chore for me to watch. By no means don’t I consider Dreamworks a great animation company, but after How to Train Your Dragon 2, I noticed a lack of quality with their films. Not animation wise, but both store wise and demographic wise. Every film after HTTYD 2 was The Penguins of Madagascar which was aimed for young audiences then Home which was for younger audiences. Kung Fu Panda 3 was average, but then Trolls was for the young audiences. Now we got The Boss Baby. A film for BABIES! Seriously an entire feature film about Alec Baldwin as Baby Donald Trump? As a critic, I scoff at this. As an avid SNL fan, I’M SOLD!

A man named Tim Templeton (Tobey Maguire) narrates and describes his seven-year-old self (Miles Bakshi) as being jealous of his fast-talking, briefcase-carrying baby brother named the "Boss Baby" (Alec Baldwin). When he goes on a mission to win back the affection of his parents (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow), he finds out about a secret plot by Puppy Co.'s CEO Francis E. Francis (Steve Buscemi) which revolves around his baby brother and threatens to destabilize the balance of love in the world. Both brothers must unite to save their parents and restore order to the world and prove that love is indeed an infinite force.

THE GOOD: When you think, Dreamworks ran out of ideas with their films they know how to hire directors to add creativity and humorous originality with their films. The great thing about The Boss Baby is Dreamworks veteran director Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Megamind) inputting his own creativity in a film that on the surface has little to no creativity with the premise. A talking baby? I’m sorry I got Family Guy to look to for that, but the beginning of the film, it starts to exhibit creativity. The film begins with a quite a creative introduction to the Boss Baby starting off into the world where you either get sent to a family or work in Babycorp Management. 

The film is imaginative and geared towards younger audiences from the visuals. Like plenty of Dreamworks films it is bright and vibrant and colorful, but what makes it distinct amongst some of their earlier efforts is the addition of watercolor with its art. The movie is from 7-year-old Tim’s point of view. Because of his young age, he has a vivid imagination which leads to sequences where Tim is playing pretend. It is in the vain of watching The Backyardigans for it follows the same art style where the characters’ animation remain the same as the background’s art style changes. It is something that children will appreciate as they will relate to Tim and his imagination. 

For a film with such a weak premise, it surprisingly offers a lot of sharp and clever dialogue. The movie is laugh out loud funny at times and it's mostly due to the script. Surprisingly this Dreamworks film doesn’t involve funny visual gags, for the screenplay makes most of it work. The screenplay is written by Michael McCullers who previously co-wrote several adult comedies such as Baby Mama, Austin Powers 2 & 3, and Undercover Brother with John Ridley. Like the Madagascar films, it’s more comedy-centric than story-centric and thanks to McCullers the jokes thoroughly works. The humor has a few adult jokes that are pretty funny, but the true comedy comes from the dialogue of the Boss Baby himself.

As you would guess it, Alec Baldwin’s voice performance is the driving force of the movie. No, it is not as unique as Baldwin voicing a Russian Santa Claus in Rise of the Guardians, but his delivery on his dialogue that works. With Baldwin’s voice interacting with Miles Bakshi (who oddly got his start voicing one of the Shrek babies), the jokes really write themselves. It's conceptually hysterical having an adult voice coming out an adorable baby (this is why everyone’s favorite Family Guy character is Stewie) so Baldwin’s voice is the perfect fit for the film. 

THE BAD: For a huge studio like Dreamworks the animation is lazy. Don’t get me wrong, the film is beautifully animated and has detailed rendering but it doesn’t have the world expansion as the rest of their films had. With every movie Dreamworks released, we saw a uniquely designed world that was so mesmerizing that it visually kept our interest even if the film’s narrative was weak. In here, you don’t really get that. The majority of this film takes place in the Templeton residence and then after that, you get 4 more locations. The only creative setting the film has is Babycorp HQ. Other than that you have a backyard, an airport, and Las Vegas where the climax takes place at. Because of this, the film suffers from over-familiarity and tries so hard keep your interest by being desperate to have its Oscar bait moments.

The jokes carry the film, but the story is dull as you can feel Dreamworks going through the motions with the same three act structure. You get the same tropes that you see in other Dreamworks films from the over the top action sequences to the overabundance of physical humor. It doesn’t have enough story material to maintain a 97-minute running time especially since it was inspired by a children's picture book. It's not like Sony's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs where the book was a blueprint for a disaster movie parody film. It's not as clever as that. And it's a huge shame too because back in the day Dreamworks were the kings of the  parody genre with their animated films. From Monsters Vs. Aliens being a satire of Creature Features and Megamind being a satire of superhero movies it's sad to see that we just dove into films that just try to be cute and think little about their story. This is why I say the last great movie from them was How to Train Your Dragon 2 which was dark and mature which is what I like with my animated movies. After The Penguins of Madagascar, it was incredibly hard to get on board with the rest of their movies.

Besides the production designs being basic, the character designs are rather generic as well. The Boss baby has a design similar to Megamind where his forehead is bigger than his entire body. Every character inherits freakishly huge bug eyes that make them way too cute. Some of the humans at times aren’t even designed as humans for some of their bodies are disproportional.  At least with Megamind, the people look like people and their faces were detailed. These characters are just too cute even arguably cuter than the Trolls. 

For an animated film that centers on the bond between brothers, it is not as effective as The Rugrats Movie. With The Rugrats Movie, you had a large scale adventure with many settings that used the filmmakers’ advantage to exhibit imaginative scenes. Here the imagination sequences are forced. It plays well into the story and developing the character of Tim, but a lot of it is for convinces. Even when the climax kicks in you get way too many imagination sequences where Tim plays pretend and you don’t really believe the true actions they’re really doing. The story just hits beat after beat where the relationship between The Boss Baby and Tim feels manipulative whereas The Rugrats Movie, the bond between Tommy and Dil is genuine. This doesn’t have the frighteningly sad sequences that give you chills. At the end of the day, the film is just forgettable and filler until we get Captain Underpants and How to Train Your Dragon 3.

LAST STATEMENT: Though it features sharp writing, fast pacing, and a great voice performance from Alec Baldwin, The Boss Baby is a forgettable toddler fodder film from a once creative animated studio that didn’t only appeal to younger viewers.

Rating: 2.5/5 | 57%

YOU GUYS BETTER NOT CUT THE BALLS OFF MY CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS! That’s my childhood you’re toying with.

Super Scene: Birth of The Boss Baby.

Pros	Cons
Fast Paced Gags	Similar Dreamworks Story Mechanics
Alec Baldwin's Voice Performance	Generic Character and Background Designs
Sharp Writing	Way Too Many Imagination Sequences
Variations of Art Styles	Weak Story Material