Boss Baby

Who slipped a little skewering of the corporate culture into my kids movie?

In this animated film, Miles Bakshi provides the voice of Tim – a seven-year old boy whose life is about to be turned upside down. Always the center of attention when Mom (Lisa Kudrow) and Dad (Jimmy Kimmel) are around, he soon loses that connection with them when Mom becomes pregnant and the new baby (Alec Baldwin) shows up.

He’s not like other babies as he walks around wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase and completely dominating the household at will. Tim may be unhappy at the loss of attention, but suspects something might be amiss, and discovers he is correct when he stumbles upon the baby having a phone conversation.

It turns out the baby is Boss Baby for the Baby Corp. He has been sent to this household to stop a dastardly plot by the company’s #1 competitor, Puppy Co., the same company that employs Tim’s Mom and Dad.

What is the big scheme?

What will happen when Boss Baby realizes he needs to form an alliance with Tim?

Boss Baby is a funny movie made better by the pitch perfect Baldwin at every turn.

It’s no surprise to see Baldwin playing an egomaniacal, pompous corporate titan, but he is so good at it, you have to laugh. He makes Boss Baby into the ultimate anti-baby with his corporate drive to succeed, edgy attitude and do whatever it takes plan to win the corner office (and private bathroom) he sees as the definitive sign of his prowess. Underneath that angelic face is the cold, calculating heart of a warrior, and we love every minute of it as we see Boss Baby as the polar opposite of emotional, caring, sharing Tim.

Writers Michael McCullers and Marla Frazee inject the originality to make Boss Baby such a wildly imaginative story. The set up for Boss Baby’s origin and how the entire Baby Corp. operates is geniusly explained to make the idea palatable and the basis for keeping the audience engaged with the proper suspension of disbelief.

However, they tend to fall back on a few too many poop jokes, and the script becomes padded with a couple too many twists, along with a compulsive desire to make it cute and cuddly as the two boys start to bond and Tim explains the importance of family to Boss Baby. The sickly sweet icky feeling you get from the film in the last fifteen minutes isn’t needed, but will appeal to those who want to feel some sentimentality, no matter how forced it may be.

Boss Baby won’t be getting fired this weekend.

Boss Baby is rated PG for some mild rude humor.

97 Minutes