{"id":9809,"date":"2024-12-09T23:55:20","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T04:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9809"},"modified":"2024-12-09T23:55:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T04:55:20","slug":"the-boss-baby-family-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/09\/the-boss-baby-family-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boss Baby: Family Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Boss Baby: Family Business<\/strong> (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DreamWorks\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (rude humor, mild language, some action)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tom McGrath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael McCullers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Steve Mazzaro and Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Jeff Goldblum, Eva Longoria, James McGrath, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Raphael Alejandro, Serenity Reign Brown.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $57.3M (US)\/$146.8M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Has it really been four years since The Boss Baby came out? To be honest, I don\u2019t really care. Although I liked it better than I thought I would, it didn\u2019t stay in my memory files all that long. Other than the Glengarry Glen Ross reference (\u201cCookies are for closers.\u201d), I didn\u2019t remember all that much about it. As such, the news of an impending sequel had no effect on me whatsoever. I met The Boss Baby: Family Business <\/strong>with an air of indifference. I didn\u2019t expect much which turned out to be the wrong attitude. It\u2019s actually too much.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tom McGrath (the Madagascar movies) returns to direct this very busy second installment which finds the Templeton brothers living separate lives forty years after their takedown of Puppy Co. Tim (Marsden, the X-Men movies) is now a married father of two. He seldom sees younger brother Ted (Baldwin, The Cat in the Hat), a successful CEO whose job keeps him too busy for things like family. Tim never outgrew his active imagination, but it appears as though eldest daughter Tabitha (Greenblatt, Stuck in the Middle) is heading in that direction. A gifted child, she\u2019s just been accepted to a highly competitive school headed by Dr. Armstrong (Goldblum, Jurassic Park), a sinister pedagogue with more on his mind than educating young minds. Mind if I circle back to this?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Saddened by the idea of 7YO Tabitha growing up, Tim\u2019s shocked and elated to discover that his infant daughter Tina (Sedaris, Elf) is a boss baby like her Uncle Ted. It seems she\u2019s been sent to deal with another crisis, one that requires help from both brothers. After luring Ted to Tim\u2019s house, she takes them both to Baby Corp where they\u2019re sent to infiltrate Tabitha\u2019s school to find out what evil thing Armstrong has planned. They\u2019re transformed into their old selves by a magic formula that will wear off in 48 hours. The plan involves an app that turns parents into zombies thus freeing children of rules and restrictions. It\u2019s up to Tim, Ted and Tina to shut it down.<\/p>\n

I think we can all agree that\u2019s sufficient plot for one kid\u2019s movie, but the makers of The Boss Baby: Family Business<\/strong> would beg to differ as evidenced by all the other stuff they manage to cram in. Obviously, we have the subplot concerning Tim and Ted resolving their differences and reestablishing their brotherly bond. Also, we have the Tim-Tabitha storyline that takes a strange turn when young Tim becomes a classmate\/friend of Tabitha. It\u2019s he who encourages her to have confidence when singing a solo at the school\u2019s Christmas pageant run by two students who have it out for his daughter. There\u2019s a holiday visit from the parents, Ted Sr. (talk show host Kimmel) and Janice (Kudrow, Friends). True to his nature, baby Ted takes charge of the playroom at school and leads the other infants in a prison break. There\u2019s also a pet pony named Precious and a clan of ninja babies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have a feeling kids will love The Boss Baby: Family Business<\/strong> despite its running time. It\u2019s 107 minutes long which is something of an anomaly. Movies aimed at young children usually clock in at about 90 minutes. After that, they tend to become restless. It\u2019s probably best to watch this one at home (it\u2019s current available to stream on Peacock). That way, you can hit pause when the little ones need a break. For me, that\u2019s not an issue. I just wanted to get it over with. In all fairness, it isn\u2019t all that bad. Sure, it\u2019s completely formulaic and totally silly. It also has a few nice touches. I give it props for managing to work in \u201cThe Time Warp\u201d from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The best musical moment is a fantasy sequence set to Cat Stevens\u2019 \u201cIf You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out\u201d (from 1971\u2019s Harold and Maude) when child Tim helps Tabitha find her vocal chops.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the most part, The Boss Baby: Family Business<\/strong> feels like warmed-up leftovers with a few added ingredients to make it taste differently. The jokes aren\u2019t as funny and the fun feels rather forced this time. However, it can\u2019t be said that it drags at any point. It goes beyond fast and energetic; it\u2019s hyperactive. It\u2019s like handing an already out-of-control child a bag of sugar and telling him to have at it. The narrative is unfocused and all over the place. The voice talents do a good job; they sound like they\u2019re having some fun with what\u2019s obviously paycheck-only work. Me, I was entertained, but never impressed. The Boss Baby: Family Business <\/strong>is never in any danger of being mistaken for a Pixar film. It\u2019s strictly for the kiddie set. Parents will just have to grin and bear it if they take their offspring to the cinema. At least if they opt for home viewing, they can text or check their social media while their kids enjoy the CA anarchy.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DreamWorks\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (rude humor, mild language, some action)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Tom McGrath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael McCullers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Steve Mazzaro and Hans Zimmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Jeff Goldblum, Eva Longoria, James McGrath, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/The-Boss-Baby-Family-Busine.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10029,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions\/10029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}