DIRECTOR: TOM MCGRATH CAST: ALEC BALDWIN, STEVE BUSCEMI, MILES BAKSHI, JIMMY KIMMEL, LISA
KUDROW, TOBEY MAGUIRE SCREENWRITER: MICHAEL McCULLERS PRODUCER:
RAMSEY
ANN NAITO EDITOR: JAMES RYAN MUSICAL
DIRECTOR: HANS ZIMMER, STEVE MAZZARO GENRE:
COMPUTER ANIMATED COMEDY DISTRIBUTOR: DREAMWORKS ANIMATION, 20TH CENTURY FOX LOCATION: UNITED STATES RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes
Technical assessment: 3
Moral
assessment: 3
CINEMA
rating: V13
Narrator Tobey
MacGuire says the last thing seven-year-old only child Tim Templeton (voiced by
Miles Bakshi) wants is another baby in the family, for he is enjoying the undivided
attention of his parents Ted and Janice (voiced
by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow). Then
one day a baby brother—Boss Baby (voiced by Alec Baldwin)—arrives, threatening to turn Tim’s world upside
down, more so because this is no ordinary baby but wears a business suit and
carries an attaché case filled with crayons and a nursing bottle. One day Tim discovers that not only can his
baby brother talk like a bossy adult, but that he is actually in the Templeton
home on a mission! Tim resents the brat’s
invasion but the two become allies once Boss Baby admits that if he fails in
his mission, he will have no choice but to remain in the Templeton household.
The voice cast is excellent, and the characterization consistent, but Boss
Baby being an animated comedy, the movie can’t help but throw in potty
humor, childish gags, and a silly chase to advance the plot. (What Hollywood movie can survive without a
chase of some kind—whether it involves cars or cats?) The weirdness of it all may make the movie be
dismissed as forgettable fun, disposable entertainment, but a closer look at
the ending (or maybe a second viewing of the whole thing) will reveal that the
silliness is intentional, for Boss Baby aims to prick adult conscience
while giving kids the laughs.
Boss Baby addresses four
issues: 1) where babies come from; 2) the trauma of an only child over the arrival
of a younger sibling; 3) society and laws being more protective of dogs/puppies
than of human babies; 4) the emptiness of worldly achievement without
love. CINEMA cannot explain more without
revealing spoilers, so we leave it to the viewer to put the “weird” and “silly”
pieces together and listen to the final song in order to see the movie’s
worthwhile message through the “flimsy plot”.
