The Boss Baby
The Boss Baby is a 2017 American animated spy comedy film starring Alec Baldwin as the voice of the titular character. Loosely based on the 2010 picture book The Boss Baby by Marla Frazee, it was directed by Tom McGrath and written by Michael McCullers. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it is the first film in The Boss Baby franchise. The film 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 by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing $528 million worldwide against a $125 million budget. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards, the Annie Awards, and the Golden Globes.
The success of the film spawned a franchise, including two television series, The Boss Baby: Back in Business and The Boss Baby: Back In the Crib, and a sequel film, The Boss Baby: Family Business.
Plot
In the 1970s, Tim Templeton, a creative 7½-year-old boy, is taken aback when his new baby brother, Boss Baby, legally named Theodore Lindsey Templeton, 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. With no evidence to support him, Tim is grounded for three weeks for trying to get rid of Baby and is ordered to stay in the house with him until he learns to get along, much to both of their dismay.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 Kids to Work Day, the parents lift the grounding and take Tim and Baby with them to Puppy Co. While investigating, they are caught by Puppy Co.'s CEO, Francis E. Francis, who is then revealed to be Baby's longtime idol: Super Colossal Big Fat Boss Baby, a former CEO of Baby Corp who 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 Baby Corp.
Francis takes Tim's parents to a Las Vegas conference and leaves his older brother Eugene to pose as a female nanny to watch them. The boys attack Eugene with fake vomit and escape from him with the help of the 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. 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. Baby Corp 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 wants him back as his brother. Baby returns as a regular baby named Theodore "Ted" Templeton, realizing love is something that grows, instead of being divided.
Years later, in the 2000s, an adult Tim and Ted tell the story to Tim's daughter, Tabitha, who is apprehensive about the arrival of her newborn baby sister. The newborn girl, named Tina, is revealed to be an employee of Baby Corp, like her uncle, surprising Tabitha.
Voice cast
- Alec Baldwin as Theodore Lindsay "Ted" Templeton Jr./The Boss Baby, an infant with the mind of an adult, who works as a Baby Corp executive and gains his intelligence and speaking ability from drinking a "Secret Baby Formula".
- Miles Bakshi as Timothy Leslie "Tim" Templeton, Boss Baby's 7 -year-old brother.
- * Tobey Maguire as Adult Tim, the narrator.
- Jimmy Kimmel as Theodore Lindsay "Ted" Templeton Sr., Janice's husband and Tim and Ted Jr.'s father.
- Lisa Kudrow as Janice Templeton, Ted Sr.'s wife and Tim and Ted Jr.'s mother.
- Steve Buscemi as Francis E. Francis/Super Colossal Big Fat Boss Baby, the CEO of Puppy Co, the former CEO of BabyCorp and the Boss's nemesis
- Conrad Vernon as Eugene Francis, Francis's older brother and minion.
- James McGrath as Wizzie, Tim's Gandalf-esque alarm clock.
- David Soren as Jimbo
- Nina Zoe Bakshi as Tabitha Templeton, Tim's daughter.
- Tom McGrath as Julia Child
- Walt Dohrn as Photographer
- James Ryan as Story Bear
- Eric Bell Jr. as The Triplets
- ViviAnn Yee as Staci
- Edie Mirman as the Big Boss Baby, Boss Baby's boss.
- James McGrath and Joseph Izzo as Elvis impersonators
- Chris Miller as Captain Ross
Production
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 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. Baldwin previously worked with DreamWorks Animation as the voice of Makunga in 2008's Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which was also directed by McGrath, as well as the voice of Nicholas St. North/Santa Claus in 2012's Rise of the Guardians.
Miles Bakshi, son of DreamWorks Animation 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. 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."