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.
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 three DreamWorks films to be the last to be distributed by 20th Century Fox alongside Trolls and 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).
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 from 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.
Upon reading the original book on which the film is based McGrath felt a connection to it, as he had an older brother and felt like "the boss baby of the family".[10] In keeping with that theme he stated, in an interview with Den of Geek, that "My personal goal with this was to watch this movie with my brother, and to see how it affected him!", which resulted in McGrath's brother being moved to tears by the completed film.[11]
The look of the film was inspired by design techniques popularized in the 1960s,[12] as well as animated films from both the 1950s and 1960s.[10] This was due to McGrath's belief that contemporary animated films focused too much on realism. To help his staff McGrath would play the opening scene of Lady and the Tramp (1955) for new hires specifically noting that the film "should be easy on the eyes and really lead your eye to what's important in the shot.[12]
Miles Bakshi, son of the DreamWorks Animation's producer Gina Shay and grandson of the film director Ralph Bakshi, known for directing animated films such as Fritz the Cat, provided the voice of 7-year old Tim. Having been often present at DreamWorks, McGrath initially asked Bakshi only to provide a temporary voice for Tim to see if the character "worked". The producers listened to 30 to 40 children to choose the scratch voice. McGrath explained their decision: "No one sounded as authentic as Miles did. A lot of child actors are great, but they are over-articulate for their age. Miles was just natural and charming. He had a little slur to his voice at the time and it was very endearing." Three years later, Miles was told that he got the part.[14] Bakshi was 10 when he began recording the voice. During the long process, his voice started to change and "by the end it got pretty tough", according to Bakshi, who was 14 when the film was released. He had to get his voice "very soft, but when I got that perfect tone it was great."
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]
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]
The first conference was done virtually and featured speakers from Northeastern University, Middlesex University, the University of York, Cambridge University, and a medical doctor from the University of California Riverside.[48] JP Karliak, the TV show's voice actor, and Brandon Sawyer, writer and executive producer of The Boss Baby: Back in Business, both spoke at the event. The "Second First Annual" conference was hosted in January 2023.
On May 25, 2017, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced a sequel, which was released on July 2, 2021, with Alec Baldwin reprising his role.[49][50] On May 17, 2019, it was announced that Tom McGrath will return as director and Jeff Hermann, who produced Bilby, Bird Karma, and Marooned, will produce the sequel. Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro returned to write the music for the film.[51]
An adult named Timothy "Tim" Templeton narrates a story about his 7-year-old self and his parents, Ted and Janice. Tim has a very lively imagination and is a happy and beloved only child. One night, as his parents tuck him into bed, they ask him how he would feel about a new baby brother. Tim says, "No thanks!", to his parents, then the screen pans out to show that his mom is in-fact pregnant.
Tim goes to sleep wondering about having a new baby brother. At an assembly line, babies are being made, except one baby seems more curious and alert than the others. When the babies come to a machine that determines if a baby goes to a family by laughing when they're tickled on the belly by a feather, the curious baby does not laugh when the feather tickles him. The machine flashes red with the word "Management", instead of the green heart with the word "Family", and the curious baby is put into an office in a black suit instead. He becomes cruel and cold, caring only for his job and not others. The next day, Tim is surprised when a baby wearing a business suit arrives at his house in a taxi, and Ted and Janice says it's Tim's new little brother. Tim is envious of the attention the baby receives, not to mention suspicious when the infant acts odd around him.
Soon, Tim learns that the baby can talk like an adult, and he introduces himself as "The Boss". Seeing an opportunity to get rid of him, Tim decides to record a conversation between Boss Baby and other infants who are at Tim's house for a meeting. Boss Baby and the other infants catch Tim with the recording, and the cassette tape is terminated after Boss Baby threatens to rip Tim's favorite stuffed animal, Lam-Lam. With no evidence to support him, Tim's parents ground him for three weeks.
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