The Boss Baby

"Cookies are for closers."

Tim Templeton (Bakshi) is a happy 7-year old.  He has loving parents, Ted (Kimmel) and Janice (Kudrow), and a great life.  All of that changes when his baby brother arrives.  The baby wears a suit and carries a briefcase.  Tim discovers that the baby is actually the Boss Baby (Baldwin), who can talk and is on a secret mission.

The Boss Baby works for Baby Corp and is trying to stop the release of a new breed of puppy.  Tim wants his life back and reluctantly agrees to help the baby.  Can they stop the evil CEO of Puppy Corp, or will they be stuck together forever?


I never intended to watch this film.  The trailers didn't capture my attention, and I didn't hear many positive reviews of the film.  I promptly forgot about it, until it was nominated for an Academy Award (instead of The Lego Batman Movie, like I expected).  I still didn't plan to watch it, until my 2-year old niece asked to watch it.

The story is loosely based on Marla Frazee's board book "The Boss Baby."  Screenwriter Michael McCullers used the basic ideas from the book to create an original story for the film.  Frazee's book had interesting ideas, but the movie tries to do too much.

Dreamworks brought in Tom McGrath, who previously directed all 3 Madagascar films (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted) and Megamind for Dreamworks, along with voicing Skipper the Penguin in the Madagascar franchise, to direct the film.

Most of the laughs in the film come from the impressive visuals.  They have lots of ideas and they don't all work.  It is funny to see the baby in a suit, with Alec Baldwin's voice.  The battle of wills between the brothers gets some laughs as well.  It has some nice moments and the ending is heartwarming.

I laughed while watching it, but I genuinely don't remember much about the film.  I enjoyed it, but I don't plan to watch it again.

The film was popular enough to get it's own Netflix TV show The Boss Baby: Back in Business (they have not released a premiere date at this time).  Apparently, Dreamworks is also planning to make a sequel in 2021.

The Boss Baby (2017) 97 minutes
Director: Tom McGrath
Starring: Alec Baldwin as Boss Baby
Steve Buscemi as Francis E. Francis
Jimmy Kimmel as Ted Templeton
Lisa Kudrow as Janice Templeton
Miles Bakshi as Tim Templeton
Tobey Maguire as Narrator
Conrad Vernon as Eugene Francis
James McGrath as Wizzie