I found the trailers for The Boss Baby charming. The concept of a baby having the mentality of
an adult, shady executive and voiced by Alec Baldwin seems to be hilariously
adorable on paper. A lot of the trailer’s
featured gags worked. I particularly
liked the meta-joke referencing Baldwin’s role in Glengarry Glen Rose.
The Boss Baby centers on Tim (Miles Bakshi), a 7-year-old boy with a
hyper imagination, who revels in the love and attention of his parents (voiced
by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow). One
day, Tim is perplexed when a mysterious baby in a suit suddenly shows up. He’s further confused when his parents refer
to him as his baby brother. From then
on, his parents focus more on the baby, and he feels neglected. Things only get weirder for Tim when he discovers
that the baby can actually talk (Alec Baldwin) and is on a mission to stop
puppies from taking love away from babies.
Watching it, I found that the “boss
baby” concept is just endearing in small dosage – in a trailer or a short film –
for in a feature-length movie, it quickly gets stale. In fact, almost all of the highlights are
seen in the trailers already.
A well-written script could have
elevated this movie when the novelty of its premise wears off, but the plot is absolutely
stupid and ridiculous. The only thing
that kept the wobbly story from derailing into a trainwreck is that the “unreliable
narrator” trope is introduced right off the bat, and it somewhat helps justify the
ongoing nonsense happening on the screen.
Still, I left this movie feeling my suspension for disbelief and lenience
for dumb cartoon elements strained to their limits.
The Boss Baby has its share of funny, adorable, and heartwarming
moments. But it isn’t really the kind of
animated movie that will appeal to everyone in the family, regardless of
age. Kids will certainly be entertained,
but more mature, sophisticated moviegoers may not have the patience to sit through
it.
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