Animated film fun, clever, but will kids get it?
“The Boss Baby” derives its premise from the notion that when babies show up in the household, they render parents into slavishly devoted employees with their demands and fits. Babies are like bosses, but more satirically, bosses are like babies, right?
That metaphor is explored in Marla Frazee’s children’s book, with a boss baby outfitted in a suit, complete with buttoned bottom flap, and now that’s been transported to the screen with Alec Baldwin voicing the titular boss.
In theory, the idea seems about as interesting as “Baby Geniuses,” but in execution, the film is surprisingly clever.
Written by Michael McCullers, it’s almost too clever for its own good — only adults are going to appreciate the nuances of the jokes and wordplay about corporate middlemanagement culture, with all of its memos and water coolers.
That content is offset with a wild and creative visual design.
There’s a fluidity to the action sequences, especially the imaginative fantasy sequences of young Tim Templeton (Miles Bakshi), the boy whose home the Boss Baby invades.
Although Frazee’s book offers the metaphor of the Boss Baby, McCullers fleshes out a full action-adventure story for Boss Baby and Tim.
Turns out this Boss Baby isn’t here to stay; he’s just on a mission from BabyCorp to infiltrate PuppyCo. via his new parents and investigate their product launch. BabyCorp is concerned that their market share of parental love is tipping too far into the puppy realm, and they need an ambitious young executive to turn things around.
But this corporate scheming is simply the backdrop for what becomes a sibling love story.
Tim and Boss Baby start out as rivals, especially when he discovers that his little be-suited younger brother is actually a swaggering executive with the dulcet tones of Baldwin, outfitted in little sock garters, with a penchant for sushi and espresso.
The two strike a deal: If Tim helps Boss Baby with the PuppyCo. mission, Boss Baby gets his corner office, and Tim gets his parents’ full attention back.
Through their misadventures and antics, the two learn to work together and love each other.
Most of the movie’s laughs are from the cognitive dissonance of Baldwin’s voice coming from a large-eyed, adorable blond baby, and there are great visual gags — his mouth twists into a pout that is veritably Trumpian — and references that the film incorporates. “Cookies are for closers!” he barks, harkening to Baldwin’s memorable speech in “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
“The Boss Baby” is great fun for parents, but it remains to be seen if kids will get it at all.