The Boss Baby
I thought the trailer made this look as if it could be good, so went to today's first showing this morning at 10am, hoping to beat the rush and be in a reasonably quiet cinema. Fortunately, that was the case with only one child chatting away as a level which I thought was a bit too loud and was hushed by his parents or someone close by couple of times.
The film is fairly simple in its setup: Tim, a seven-year-old boy has a wonderful relationship with his parents and everything he could want at home. Unfortunately, one day they come home with a new baby and all the attention which was lavished on him is now devoted to the new arrival. He also has a sneaking suspicion that everything is not as it seems and there is something (aside from the suit and briefcase) a little unusual about this baby, a suspicion confirmed when he hears him talking in adult males voice.
I won't say what happens after that because it would be to the detriment of anyone watching for the first time. The Boss Baby has a strange animated style, with eyes in close-up seemingly borrowed from Japanese anime and other design from mainstream American animated films, plus fantasy sequences with a whole array of styles. These work quite well in visual storytelling, telling you what is going on without relying on a verbal explanation. There are some neat gags as well, such as when Tim tells Boss Baby that his bedtime song, Blackbird, was written for him by his parents, leading the baby to ask, much to Tim's bewilderment, if his parents were Lennon and McCartney.
This DreamWorks-produced film isn't of the standard at which Pixar tends to operate, nor like recent Disney films such as Moana or Zootropolis – it isn't as funny, deep, emotionally resonant, or offering as much to audiences of all ages. That said, what it does do, it does very well and engaged me throughout – I was never bored – and stayed until after the credits because I (correctly) guessed there would be an extra scene. Alec Baldwin is superb voicing the title character, and he is ably supported by Tobey Maguire as the adult Tim and narrator, Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow as Tim's parents and Steve Buscemi in a role which I won't divulge so as not to spoil a major plot development.
If you have young children, The Boss Baby will be worth the trip to the cinema during the Easter holidays as they probably will be well entertained for the 98 minute running time. If you don't like busy cinemas and children irritate you, wait for it to be released on DVD or Blu-ray.
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