Basically known only as “that movie where Alec Baldwin plays a talking baby in a suit”, The Boss Baby is DreamWorks Animation’s latest attempt to distract the masses from whatever Disney or Pixar film awaits over the horizon. The title really captures it all. There’s a baby and he’s the boss. He gets what he demands. People wait on his every beck and call. The more adorable he presents himself as, the more he’s bound to get away with. Oh and also, his name really is Boss Baby and he comes complete with a backstory that answers just as many questions as one could imagine, while posing a whole new slew to be ignored.
Before getting to all that, we first have to get to know Tim, the wide eyed 7 year old whose life gets upended. Tim serves as both the narrator and driving force of the film. Voice over duties belong to Tobey Maguire, while the younger Tim is voiced by Miles Bakshi. His early days are captured in golden hues, as Tim lives the simple, idyllic life of an only child. He spends his days playing make-believe with his parents (Lisa Kudrow and Jimmy Kimmel), eating with his parents and being lulled to slumber land by a song he believes his parents wrote just for him, “Blackbird”, by The Beatles.
Then, one afternoon that he remembers as clear as day, a strutting baby emerges from a taxi, wearing a suit. Moments later, it’s craddled lovingly in his parents arms, as they announce the arrival of a bouncing baby boy. Instantly the dynamic of his entirely life shifts for the worst. Tim is rendered powerless as this new Boss makes his authority known, taking every chance to rub it in his older brother’s face.
The initial metaphor is universally understood. Anytime a young child’s love for their parents is compromised or seemingly at risk of being taken away, their logical response is to act out of fear or desperation. That in and of itself, is perfect grounds upon which to make a great movie. One where child-like imagination and stark reality clash to tell a story of growth and acceptance. What occurs is totally, or at least tonally, different. Director Tom McGrath and writer Michael McCullers loosely adapt Marla Frazee’s Childrens book, The Boss Baby, into a rather odd beast that shoots for laughs, but ends up trying everyone’s patience.
From the jump, it’s readily apparent that Tim has the most over active imagination of any kid in his neighborhood. The animators work feverishly to render Tim’s mindscape as a polar opposite to the “real” world around him. Think Calvin and Hobbes splash panels and you get the idea. It looks beautiful onscreen and is filled with a sense of joy the rest of the film never seems to match.
Not only is there simply not enough if this viewpoint, but scenes that seem as if they should be the constructs of Tim’s mind, are presented plainly. The majority of times Boss Baby acts out, often with the aid of a few minions during playdates, lend themselves naturally to the hyper-reality that is established early. Instead, it’s just standard kids fare where anything and everything is possible. All this begs to question why Tim’s imagination even needs to be externalized, other than to pad run time or make some scenes pop more than others.
The perfect example which highlights this disconnect comes early with Tim ponders the age old question of “where do babies come from?”. As he drifts off to sleep, a montage is presented that acts if the audience is seeing what Tim thinks the answer is.
Babies, it turns out, aren’t the product of reproduction (although his mom is visibly pregnant at the start of the movie), but processed on an assembly line, There they are fitted with the basic accoutrements: socks, diaper and pacifiers. At the end of the line all babies are subject to one final test for placement. A machine tickles each individual with a light feather. Laugh and you go on to your preselected family. Stay silent and you get upgraded to a full suit with accompanying briefcase and shipped off to BabyCorp. None of this though is a dream, merely the way things truly are.
Baldwin’s Boss Baby is the latest in a long line of individuals who have climbed the BabyCorp ladder and is up for the coveted slot of CEO, along with the corner office that seems to be its main perk. It’s explained in fairly simple terms that these intellegent babies are actually humans, who drink a daily regimen of a secret formula that keeps there body forever young. To be granted that title he first has to perform a mission which sees the very future of the company hang in the balance.
Turns out that babies are losing favor in the world, being unseated by puppies. In this world, everything can be easily quantified by pie charts, with only a finite amount of love to go around. Their slice of the pie threatens to be made nonexistant as PuppyCo is gearing up to announce a new “forever puppy”, based on the same principles that keeps BabyCorp’s staff in check. PuppyCo just so happens to also be the place where Tim’s parents work.
What follows is a standard cross-country race against time, logic and good taste. The brothers face countless hurdles that are overcome just as fast as they’re presented. Here and there Tim’s imagination pops back up, making sure that the smallest of attention spans snap back to the screen.
Of course, a movie that boasts a business baby voiced by Alec Baldwin, is only good as the performance he supplies, which end up a mixed bag. Baldwin simultaneously seems energized and simply going through the motions. True, that can be the case with a lot of his work, but the eye-rolling here is more than slightly audible as he barks “cookies are for closers”.
That balancing act of silly childish antics mixed with adult references gets mined again and again, to lessening effect each time. The baseline for most children’s films usually exists with a one for us, one for them style of format. The Boss Baby would rather throw everything at the wall and hope that a few chuckles are salvaged in the madness. They aren’t.
Somewhere within the 100 minutes of insanity exists a sweet film that speaks to the fears every child has when it comes to the possibility of losing favor with their parents. In the hands of a better studio, or more careful filmmakers, that nugget could have turned The Boss Baby a new classic. Instead, DreamWorks Animation believes in the tactics of a newborn and that if it screams loud enough, for long enough, you will succumb to its desires.
