Review of “The Boss Baby” (2017)

I saw the trailer for this film many times. At some point, I was on a plane and decided to give this movie a try. I had no idea what the plot was until I watched it.

The story is narrated by a man named Tim. It focuses on when he was 7 years old and living a happy life with his parents. They bring home a baby in a suit. Like many little kids, Tim is resistant to having to accept a new baby in the family.

He discovers the baby talking on the phone in an adult voice. When the baby holds a meeting with a few other babies in the house. But he disguises it as just a playdate.

Tim records their conversation, and tries to prove to his parents that the babies can talk. But that leads to him and the infant into a disagreement. Tim attempts to “get rid” of the baby… only for his parents see him trying to launch his baby brother out the window. They ground him for 3 weeks.

While Tim is suffering from his punishment, the baby takes Tim to Baby Corp and gives him a tour. Tim improves his behavior with the baby and his parents end his punishment.

They take Tim to Puppy Co., because it’s Bring Your Kid to Work Day. A person dressed in a dog costume creeps Tim and the baby out as they investigate why people want puppies instead of babies. They encounter Francis—the CEO of Puppy Co. His is also a villain who is planning to create a formula that would keep puppies they ways they are permanently, and prevent them from aging and dying.

Francis eventually makes Tim’s parents go to Las Vegas, and leave Tim and the baby with a nanny. During the mission, the infant, who hasn’t had the special formula to make babies function like adults, starts functioning like a normal baby—which is what happens if they don’t take that formula after a while.

Yet, the baby ingests the formula again, and is back to his normal self. However, stakes are rising. It’s only a matter of time before the worst thing possible can happen.

This movie had a lot of interesting and unexpected concepts, such as how babies are made in that world and the special formula they take to function like adults. Otherwise, they function like regular babies, and go to families, which is what happens to most infants in their world.

Despite that, it seems unknown and inconsistent why Tim’s parents told him where babies come from—the real way… I’m obviously not going into detail on that (you probably already know it, anyway). But I did admire the infant’s reaction to that—it grossed him out.

During the scene where Tim and the baby need to save their parents, there is an “Elvis” plane. Both the passengers and the staff communicated in their own stereotypical “Elvis” language, which cracked me up.

One thing that I felt went a bit too far was the person in the puppy costume, where kids would sit on his lap. Not only did he creep the baby and Tim out, but he kind of scared me a bit.

Yet, the two remained determined to keep up with their goals. They also form a bond throughout the movie.

I give The Boss Baby 4 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it very much.