Review of The Boss Baby (2017) by Patrick L — 03 May 2017

"Is "The Boss Baby" really a Dreamworks animated feature? or is it just another stab at Donald Trump's baby-esque behavior?".

Movie Review: The Boss Baby.

Date Viewed: April 1 2017.

Directed By Tom McGrath (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Megamind).

Screenplay By Michael McCullers, Based on the picture book by Marla Freeze.

Featuring the voices of Alec Baldwin, Miles Christopher Bakshi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Buscemi, Tobey Maguire, James McGrath, Conrad Vernon, David Soren and Walt Dohrn.

Is "The Boss Baby" really a Dreamworks animated feature? or is it just another stab at Donald Trump's baby-esque behavior? This film can't be both. Alec Baldwin's impersonation of Donald Trump became comedic gold for "Saturday Night Live" but his impersonation doesn't have to be translated into a big-budget cartoon. Yes, Alec Baldwin voices a baby who's literally known as the Boss Baby and looks exactly like a little version of the current President of the United States. I kid you not, he literally looks like Donald Trump. He has the orange hair, the baby-esque behavior and of course, those small hands.

Based on a 2010 picture book from Marla Freeze that I'm sure Trump probably didn't read, "The Boss Baby" has a premise that's very similar to last year's "Storks" which was about storks who lived in an unknown heavenly source and would deliver babies to happy couples or families. I liked this film even less because it has a villainous CEO who wants to create little puppies who are so cute and adorable, adults would just forget about having or adopting babies and instead own cuddly little dogs.

Would "The Boss Baby" be a cute and pleasant distraction for the kiddies? You betcha they would eat this up and so will the anti-Trump people but I never found it funny for one second. Narrated by Tobey Maguire, the story focuses around a seven-year-old boy named Timothy Templeton (voiced by Miles Christopher Bakshi), he enjoys being a single child because he gets to spend so much time with his mom (voiced by Lisa Kudrow) and dad (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel). He wishes it would just be the three of them forever but one day out of nowhere, Timothy's parents arrive back home with a business suit-wearing enfant. Dad announces that the Trump-like enfant is his new baby brother and this news shatters Timothy's world in a matter of seconds.

The new baby brother starts to steal attention away from Timothy's parents which makes him angry and oblivious. One night, he discovers that the baby can talk and speaks with an adult voice (Baldwin, who thankfully didn't use his Trump voice for this film). The baby explains that he is "The Boss Baby" and he comes from Baby Corp., a special kind of corporation where babies who have adult minds and voices work to preserve baby love everywhere on the planet. The Boss Baby's mission is to stop the CEO of Puppy Corp., Francis E. Francis (voiced by Steve Buscemi) from using the Boss Baby's special baby formula for his plans to conjure up "Forever Puppies". Basically his evil plan is to make dogs more cute and adorable than babies but what kind of evil plan is that?

The screenplay by Michael McCullers (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Undercover Brother, Baby Mama and Thunderbirds) doesn't address it's odd premise very well and the Boss Baby character is just another excuse for Baldwin to poke fun at Donald Trump again. Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow do fine voice work as Timothy's parents but newcomer Miles Christopher Bakshi gives a very hyperactive and grating performance as the big brother who must learn to accept his baby brother who's actually a business-minded, mini-me version of the current leader of the free world.

For a big animated division that has given us heart-warming and hilarious entertainments such as "Shrek", "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Kung Fu Panda", Dreamworks has really gotten cutesy and soft over the past few years thanks to mediocre and forgettable hits such as "Home" and "Trolls". Instead of getting it's diaper changed, maybe "The Boss Baby" should get a script change. How about that?