The Boss Baby is a 2017 American computer-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, 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. The film received mixed reviews from critics upon release, who praised its animation and voice performances but criticized its plot 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.
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.
Production
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”. 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.
The look of the film was inspired by design techniques popularized in the 1960s, as well as animated films from both the 1950s and 1960s. 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.”
In September 2014, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey joined the cast of the film, with further casting news announced in June 2016, including Steve Buscemi replacing Spacey.
Miles Bakshi, son of the DreamWorks Animation›s producer Gina Shay and grandson of the film director Ralph Bakshi, who directed the 1972 American adult animated comedy film 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. 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.”
Music
The film was scored by Hans Zimmer, who had previously collaborated with McGrath on the Madagascar trilogy (2005–2012) and Megamind (2010), along with Steve Mazzaro, Jacob Collier, and various artists. 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. 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.
Box office
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.
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, including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews. The film debuted grossing $49 million from 3,773 theaters. Its second weekend earnings dropped by 47% to $26.3 million, and followed by another $15.9 million the third weekend. The Boss Baby completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on November 2, 2017.
Critical response
The Boss Baby has an approval rating of 53% 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.” 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”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A−” on an A+ to F scale.
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.»