The Boss Baby: Family Business
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 Once again, this movie isn't the boss, baby.
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The Boss Baby: Family Business is a 2021 American 3D computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, however, this film follows the story of the picture book The Bossier Baby, sequel to The Boss Baby source material. The second installment in The Boss Baby franchise, and serving as a sequel to the 2017 film, the film was directed by Tom McGrath, from a screenplay by Michael McCullers, and stars the voice of Alec Baldwin as the title character, alongside James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Eva Longoria, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Goldblum. The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, 2021 in traditional and select RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema locations, by Universal Pictures; it was also given a 60 day simultaneous streaming release on Peacock. A third movie is in development.
Plot
Now adults, Tim Templeton is a stay-at-home dad for two adorable daughters, while his estranged brother, Ted, is a big-shot CEO. They come together in an unexpected way when they take a magical formula that transforms them into babies for 48 hours. Joining forces with Tim's secret-agent daughter, they must go under cover to prevent an evil genius from turning fellow toddlers into monstrous brats.
Bad Qualities
- The story is still generic, just like the first film.
- It also contains awkward moments, much like the first film, like toilet humor.
- The tone is even worse than the first movie as it is completely insane and nonsensical, which makes the story a little hard to follow at times.
- While not as bad as the first movie, some parts of the writing can be very lazy at times since this film steals plot points from certain older DreamWorks Animation films, for example, the climax between the Templeton children and Dr. Armstrong is just an lazy rehash of the climax from Penguins of Madagascar, only with humans, set in a school, and had more filler than that climax, the only reason why the climax was so dragged out is just serves as an attempt for the writers to make him a powerful villain that could surpass other way better DreamWorks villains like Drago and Lord Shen.
- Despite the suggestion at the end of the first film that a sequel could focus on Tim's daughter and her newborn sister, Tim's eldest daughter doesn't seem to have much to do even though she could be involved in the adventure.
- Several scenes happen with very little rhyme or reason, including several fantasy sequences and even a musical number between Tim and Tabitha.
- The release date of the film is pretty weird, since it wants to push a narrative of Tim and Ted coming together at Christmas, which makes it all the more confusing that it released in July, even if though it was released closer to the holidays in October in other countries.
- The whole new Baby Formula that turns adults into babies idea seems like a cheap excuse to bring back the younger designs of Tim and the Boss Baby.
- Inconsistency: Although Tim's daughter tells him and Theodore that the new Baby Formula turns adults back into babies for two days, Tim rejuvenates into a kid but not as a baby. This could be explained because Theodore had more of the formula than him, but as it is, it only happens because the filmmakers needed him to return to his younger self from the first film.
- Another inconsistency is when Ted Sr. and Janice bring up how Tim told them about how Theodore could talk as a baby and how their boss tried to kidnap them, even though their memories were erased near the end of the first movie.
- Also, when Tim is transformed back into a child, he keeps his adult voice. This admittedly isn't the biggest deal, but it does sound weird compared to Miles Bakshi's more natural child voice and does somewhat question why they didn't just bring him back to do his child voice.
- Similar to Little Red Riding Hood from Happily N’Ever After 2, the Templeton daughters from the end of the first movie are heavily redesigned with no explanation whatsoever to the point where the daughters look nothing like they did from the first movie (especially the eldest daughter who has her skin darkened and her baby sister, who looks absolutely nothing like she did in the first movie with a different body shape and brown hair).
- Jimbo, Stacy, and the Triplets, five characters from the first film, are reduced to cameos in their adult forms to the point where Stacy doesn't even get a line.
- The relationship between kid-Tim and Tabitha may be cute on paper, but the way it's executed raises some strange, possibly incestual implications.
- Shameless product placement, such as the Hot Wheels logo appearing on adult Tim’s T-Shirt, the Boss Baby and the babies using Play-Doh for an escape plan, and the day being saved by combining Mentos with cola. Of course, while a few DreamWorks Animation movies like Antz, Madagascar, Bee Movie, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, Turbo, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and even Shark Tale have product placement, at least they used the product placement efficiently (parodied in both Shrek films and Shark Tale’s cases) by making them have minor appearances and focuses mostly on their plots thus making them don’t stand out as shameless, but here, the product placement is used as plot devices in a few scenes unlike those films combined, making the product placement in this and the first movie feel very out of place for a DreamWorks Animation movie.
- A clip from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is shown at one point in a theatre during the chase scene. This was clearly put in to promote Spirit Untamed, since that was scheduled to release after this film, but due to this movie being delayed to July, resulting in Untamed releasing first, it becomes out of place.
- The scene where Boss Baby and Tim pinch each other in the chests and the "Casual Fridays" poster are very disturbing to see.
- It tries way too hard to be hip with the kids with smartphone references and social media parodies, especially since there was a thankfully unused line from the trailer where Tim's youngest daughter tells both him and Theodore "Now you work for me, boomers". While the line was removed, Theodore still says "it's Night of the Living Boomers!" regardless.
- Like with the first film, the villain, Dr. Erwin Armstrong, is a weak and generically powerful villain wannabe despite his motivations for being one.
- Not to mention is that his motivation is to get rid of adults all around the world using their phone apps and making babies take over the world is completely nonsensical, even by DreamWorks Animation villain standards, especially since babies are known to be the weakest of the human lifespan and there are so many hazards (including sharp objects and dangerous animals) all over the world that babies could get injured or killed due to the lack of their parents support, possibly lead to the end of humanity if generations of humans died off, and even if the babies survive the hazards or neglect, then they’ll soon age up to adults without any knowledge in years, making Dr. Armstrong’s motivation extremely dangerous and could get in huge trouble by the authorities for large amounts of infant neglect. Even Prince Charming from Shrek the Third had a more justifiable motivation to be the new king of Far Far Away with the fairytale villains to avenge the death of his mother from the second Shrek movie, Fairy Godmother than this villain.
- Also, if he teaches children at his school, then why does he only want babies to turn bad by getting rid of their parents, when the students who appear to be older than the babies (mostly children who are aged 6 to 12) at his school also have parents and yet Armstrong doesn’t do anything with the children (aside from the Templeton children which he tries to kill them to avoid them getting to the server), right after their parents were brainwashed by their phones through an app he created at the school play, not to mention that he said that he’s going to get rid of rules from the babies’ parents after he brainwashed them, when he clearly has school rules for his older students, which just goes to show not only his motivation is completely nonsensical and dangerous, but also very hypocritical as well, similar to Sir Rothbart’s motivation to get rid of Christmas in the kingdom in the Swan Princess Christmas.
- Apart from his motivation, his backstory on why he doesn’t want parents to be in his way is just very stupid and pathetic, as he runs away from home to found a school just because he’s more smarter than his parents, even though he’s still a baby, if so, then Armstrong could’ve get stuck in a dangerous situation like the road full of vehicles like cars, also if police could’ve just found him running away from home without any supervision and take him back to his parents under maximum house arrest so he can’t escape, then none of the events of the sequel would’ve happened and the babies would’ve live healthy and go to a proper school with adult supervision, showing that he’s a very stupid villain (despite being shown as a intelligent baby) in any DreamWorks Animation movie.
- He’s basically a bootleg copy of Professor Poopypants from the Captain Underpants movie (ironically, both movies are made by DreamWorks Animation) since both characters are intelligent teachers who wants to get rid of something around the world (laughter and adults) by brainwashing people and have children as their sidekicks (Melvin Sneedly and the babies), expect without the charm that makes Poopypants a great villain with a justified backstory where he was made fun out of at an award show due to his name when compared to Armstrong who has a very nonsensical backstory about why he doesn’t want parents to be in babies way.
- Overall due to his nonsensical backstory and dangerous motivation as well as being a massive hypocrite despite being a intelligent baby, he’s also considered to be by some people, the absolute worst villain from a DreamWorks Animation movie, to the point where he makes other bad DreamWorks Animation villains like Guy Gagne from Turbo, Mrs. Grunion from Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Prince Charming from Shrek the Third only, Makunga from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and even Francis E. Francis from the first movie look more threatening and well written by comparison.
- Very poorly executed and kinda weak plot-twist where it's revealed that Dr. Armstrong is actually a baby the entire time, especially considering his nonsensical backstory and motivation, in fact, the plot twist could’ve been better if it was more fleshed out if it weren’t for those two topics that were already mentioned.
- Once again, dated references to popular culture in a modern children's animated movie like using Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".
- Several plot holes, such as why can’t the other children at the school play (aside from the babies that weren’t affected by Armstrong) just help the Templeton children fight back Dr. Armstrong in the climax, they could’ve fight for their parents after they’re brainwashed since Armstrong doesn’t do anything with them aside from the babies taking over the world, but instead, the climax was just plain dragged out filler that only serves to make Armstrong the most powerful villain when he’s clearly a bootleg copy of Professor Poopypants only with a nonsensical backstory and motivation.
- The Dreamworks logo is reused from the first film without making a new variant for the sequel, which is outright lazy even for DreamWorks Animation standards.
- Amy Sedaris' voice work as Tina is excruciating.
Good Qualities
- The movie does not maintain continuity with the Netflix television series The Boss Baby: Back in Business and definitely retcons the series as non-canonical.
- Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro's score is pretty good at best.
- The animation’s pretty imaginative and the Christmas setting is admittedly beautiful.
- It isn't all that offensive and is completely harmless for kids as the gross-out/farting jokes did slightly get toned down.
- The film does at least have a heartwarming ending, where Tim’s family comes together for Christmas and Dr. Armstrong gets reunited with his family.
Reception
Like the first film, The Boss Baby: Family Business received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the humor but criticism for the aimless plot. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "It's more C-level than C-suite, but as a painless diversion for the kids, this Boss Baby manages some decent Family Business.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed reviews".
Videos
External Links
The Boss Baby: Family Business at the Internet Movie Database
The Boss Baby: Family Business on Rotten Tomatoes
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