Baby’s Day Out

THE PROSPECT of a sibling can shake any child’s world. So, idea, or even name, wise, The Boss Baby seems completely appropriate. However, this Dreamworks animation isn’t content to leave it at that, stretching and stretching till a good enough premise is spread so thin that the stitches begin to show.

Baldwin, the stand-up of the moment, is the ‘Boss Baby’, throwing around lines like fired, hired, promoted, and upper-rung and middle-rung management. He is one of the employees of Baby Corp, whose goal is to ensure that babies remain central to the universe. Employees such as him are fed on a formula that forever keeps them a baby, and all they aspire for is a corner office and private parties. He is brought home by the unsuspecting parents of Tim (voiced by Bakshi) who, like parents of all newborn, put up with all he does, including wearing a suit and tie and carrying around a briefcase.

Tim is suspicious, but his doubts are brushed away as sibling rivalry.

Mcgrath swings between trying to keep the humour very, very basic — including bare butts and baby farts — and trying to elevate it to something more. He gets a few laughs here and there, particularly when Tim and the Boss Baby are left to themselves, but towards the middle, there are just too many things being juggled around. That includes the hunt for a mysterious new puppy, since Baby Corp feels threatened that humans are replacing their love for babies with that for the four-legged creatures.

There is another idea aired for a long time here — “whether there is enough love around for everyone”. There is plenty of cause for doubt, but in a world as boisterous, lustrous and colourful as this, there can be only one answer to that. SL