The Boss Baby
The Boss Baby is a 2017 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee,[4] it was directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Michael McCullers, and stars the voices of Alec Baldwin as the title character, along with Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Miles Bakshi, and Tobey Maguire. The first installment in The Boss Baby franchise, the plot follows a boy helping his baby brother who is a secret agent in the war for adults' love between babies and puppies.
This article is about the film. For the franchise, see The Boss Baby (franchise).The Boss Baby
The Boss Baby
by Marla Frazee
James Ryan
- Hans Zimmer
- Steve Mazzaro
- March 12, 2017 (Miami)
- March 31, 2017 (United States)
97 minutes[1]
United States
English
$125 million[2]
$528 million[3]
The Boss Baby premiered at the Miami International Film Festival on March 12, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 31.[5] The film received mixed reviews from critics upon release, who praised its animation and voice performances (especially that of Baldwin) but criticized the complicated plot, the pacing, and humor. It grossed $528 million worldwide against its $125 million budget. The film received Best Animated Feature nominations at the Academy Awards, Annie Awards, and Golden Globes.
It was one of two DreamWorks films to be the last to be distributed by 20th Century Fox alongside Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Following NBCUniversal's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016, Universal Pictures began distributing DreamWorks's films, starting with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019).
A Netflix television series, The Boss Baby: Back in Business, premiered on April 6, 2018, while a sequel film, The Boss Baby: Family Business, was released in theaters and on Peacock on July 2, 2021. Another Netflix television series, The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, premiered on May 19, 2022.
Plot[edit]
In the late 1970s, Tim Templeton, a creative 7-year-old, is taken aback when his new baby brother, Boss Baby, arrives. Baby wears a suit and tie and acts like a normal baby around parents and adults, but walks and talks like an adult when parents are absent. One day, Baby holds a staff meeting with other infants, under the guise of a neighborhood play date. Tim attempts to record them on a tape before Baby and his cronies spot and chase him, resulting in it being destroyed. Tim is grounded until he learns to get along with Baby.
Later, Baby reveals the truth as to why he is in his house and where he comes from. He and Tim suck a special pacifier that allows them to see Baby Corp, where babies come from. Most babies go to families, but those unresponsive to tickling are sent to management, where they are given a special baby formula that allows them to think and behave like adults while remaining young forever. Baby explains he is on a special mission to investigate the declining love for babies due to puppies, and came to the Templetons as Tim's parents work for Puppy Co. Once his mission is done, he will leave. However, the boys hear Baby's boss threatening to fire him if he fails, which would mean Baby would have to stay and grow up with the Templeton family. Tim and Baby team up to prevent this.
On Take Your Kid to Work Day, the parents take Tim and Baby with them to Puppy Co. While investigating, they are caught by Francis Francis, who used to be the CEO of Baby Corp but got fired due to aging from lactose intolerance. He takes Baby's formula to create a "Forever Puppy" incapable of aging, which will take all love from babies and give him his revenge on BabyCorp.
Francis takes Tim's parents to a Las Vegas conference and leaves his brother Eugene to pose as a female nanny to watch the children. The boys attack Eugene with fake vomit and escape him with the help of neighborhood toddlers. They reach Las Vegas, where they find Francis ready to launch a rocket of Forever Puppies out into the world. Tim's parents are trapped below the rocket to be burned. Tim and Baby fight Francis on a catwalk, making him fall into a vat of formula that turns him back into a baby, and Eugene takes him home. Tim and Baby save Tim's parents and eject the Forever Puppies from the rocket before it launches.
Baby goes back to Baby Corp and becomes CEO. BabyCorp workers erase evidence of Baby and the parents' memories of him. One of these workers asks Tim if he would like to forget about Baby, but he declines. Tim and Baby soon realize they miss each other deeply, and Tim invites him back, saying that he can have all of his parents love. Baby returns as a regular baby named Theodore "Ted" Templeton, realizing love is something that grows, instead of being divided.
Years later, in the present day, an adult Tim and Ted tell the story to Tim's eldest daughter, who is apprehensive about the arrival of her newborn baby sister. After the adults leave, the newborn girl reveals she is a Boss Baby, too, surprising the elder daughter.
Music[edit]
The film was scored by Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, Jacob Collier, and various artists. It marks as Zimmer's fifth collaboration with Tom McGrath after the Madagascar trilogy (2005–2012) and Megamind (2010), and his 12th overall film he scored for DreamWorks Animation, which includes The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Shark Tale (2004), and the first three Kung Fu Panda films (2008–2016). The film's soundtrack was released on Back Lot Music & iTunes. "Blackbird" by The Beatles is used as part of the plot at various points throughout the film.[15] During the end credits, Missi Hale recorded a cover of the Burt Bacharach song "What the World Needs Now Is Love" (first performed by Jackie DeShannon). "My House" by Flo Rida is also used in the trailer for the film.
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
The Boss Baby was initially scheduled for release on March 18, 2016,[16] but was later pushed back to March 31, 2017.[17] The film premiered at the Miami Film Festival on March 12, 2017,[18][19] and was released in the United States on March 31, 2017, by 20th Century Fox.[5] The film was later released in Japan on March 21, 2018 by DreamWorks Animation's sister company Universal Pictures. The Japanese release is accompanied by the DreamWorks animated short Bird Karma.[20]
Home media[edit]
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released The Boss Baby for digital download on July 4, 2017, and on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Ultra HD Blu-ray on July 25. Physical copies contain a short film, The Boss Baby and Tim's Treasure Hunt Through Time.[21] From November 2017 to May 2019, the film was available on Netflix, and the film returned to the streaming platform after 4 years on May 22, 2023.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Boss Baby grossed $175 million in the United States and Canada and $353 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $528 million.[3]
The film was released with Ghost in the Shell and The Zookeeper's Wife on March 31, 2017. The Boss Baby grossed $15.5 million on its first day,[22] including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews.[23] The film then earned $50 million from 3,773 theaters during its opening weekend.[24] Its second weekend earnings dropped by 47% to $26.3 million,[25] and followed by another $15.9 million the third weekend.[26] The Boss Baby completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on November 2, 2017.[27]
Critical response[edit]
The Boss Baby has an approval rating of 78% based on 180 professional reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Its critical consensus reads, "The Boss Baby's talented cast, glimmers of wit, and flashes of visual inventiveness can't make up for a thin premise and a disappointing willingness to settle for doody jokes."[28] Metacritic (which uses a weighted average) assigned The Boss Baby a score of 50 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[29] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[24]
Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times praised Baldwin and the adult humor, saying: "The contrast between the helpless-infant stage of life and corporate-speak is funny but fairly high-concept for a kiddie movie, and the plot grows denser as it goes along and the baby and Tim reluctantly join forces to stop a conspiracy by which puppies would corner all the love in the world."[30]