Review of The Boss Baby (2017) by Ceb1031 — 02 Apr 2017

No more grasping for political allegory in the latest episode of Riverdale — The Boss Baby has already done all the work for you. This is a film about a little baby, dressed in a baby-sized suit, the seat of whose pants strain to contain his bulbous baby bottom. When the Boss Baby is (spoiler alert) promoted to CEO of his baby company, he’s given a new office, and sits on his new golden toilet at the top of his baby tower, looking out at the world below. When he’s forced to take a photo with the family he’s been “assigned” to, he refuses to smile, saying that it makes him “feel weak.” His favorite expression is a puckered-lip scowl. At one point the Boss Baby (who does not have a name, because his personal and professional identity are indistinguishable) plays with a toy golf set while his older “brother” Timmy works late into the night doing research for him. When Timmy asks why he doesn’t help, the Boss Baby responds, “I’m very busy delegating.”.

But beyond that, The Boss Baby is a movie about the imaginary attention economy, first within the family unit (the Boss Baby, being a baby, takes all the attention away from Timmy) and then more fantastically in the Boss Baby’s mission — to sabotage the pet industry. Puppies are becoming more and more popular, and babies are no longer the stars in the cuteness industry. The Boss Baby gathers a cabal of yes-babies and preaches to them about the threat of the encroaching Other, visualized by a pie chart with a shrinking baby slice and an expanding puppy slice. (Birds, cats, and fish are given much smaller slivers of the pie.) “Puppies are winning, babies are losing,” he says ominously to his trembling base.