The Boss Baby (Dir. Tom McGrath, 1h.38)

 

As Dreamworks rattle cheerfully towards 25 years of proving to be the less-serious, less polished, more adventurous foil to first Pixar then the resurgent Disney Animation Studios, their latest feature, The Boss Baby, sums the studio's approach well. The story of a boy coming to terms with an unwelcome younger brother that isn't everything he seems to be, and the increasing conspiracy that both become embroiled in, it may not be groundbreaking in its animation, or sidesplitting funny, but, as with many Dreamworks' films, what it does is both visually interesting and fresh story wise, and inventive enough to be a solid and enjoyable feature.

Central to both the success and the humour of the film is the Boss Baby himself, Alec Baldwin-a high-flying executive type, working for the baby-creating company Baby Corp, whilst remaining in baby form, is every inch the jargon-spouting, memo writing, hard-working Company man-or baby-there are hints of multiple famous businessmen, from Don Draper to even elements of Baldwin's impersonation of Donald Trump, beloved of SNL. Indeed, the quick talking, "only closers get cookies"-management style that the Boss Baby espouses is not that dissimilar from the business-books of the latter, and throughout the film, even as he and protagonist Timmy grow closer, his style of approaching life remains business-driven, up to the film's artful denouement.

That said, the relationship between Tim and the Boss Baby is well-written and indeed a clever satire, though one more focused at the child-section of the audience, whilst Baldwin's business speak aims more towards the adults, of coming to terms with a younger brother, (or indeed sister). It's this central concept, lifted from the book of the same name by American author and illustrator Marla Frazee that The Boss Baby uses-coming to terms with a demanding, and to young eyes, bossy-demanding "meetings" and attention that means the older sibling is left out and feels unloved-it's certainly a sentiment that chimed with much of the audience, and indeed with myself. Certainly, much of the humour comes from the Boss Baby's...unbaby-ishness, either ordering tuna sushi or snarking at the often visually disgusting nature of baby food

Tim for his part is an adventurous, and certainly well-crafted protagonist-it is his flights of fantasy that the film moves into occasionally, with their own striking visual style, that either saturates the colour or takes on nuances of various cinematic styles-there's a great sequence in which, having to spy on the Boss Baby, the film adopts an almost anime-ish heavily nuanced red and black colour-scheme as Tim pretends to be a ninja-the film also enjoyably flicks back during these scenes to reveal what havoc Tim is wreaking in the real world. His rivalry, and eventual friendship with his fake younger brother is what drives the film, with the wild-eyed innocent dreamer and the smart-alec business...uh, baby, working off each other well, plotting together to get what they both want whilst pretending to be a perfect pair of siblings to their parents.
 
But why has the Boss Baby inflicted his middle-management style and indeed his tantrums upon Tim and his parents? Well, he's on a mission from his company to find out, and if possible neutralise the competition. The competition being...Puppy Co, the company Tim's parents work for. Baby Corp fear, with their market-share being reduced by dogs replacing babies as the cutest things around, that the new "product launch" may spell doom for Baby Corp. In order to get the Boss Baby to return to Baby Corp, Tim must join forces with him, despite their differences, to deal with Puppy Co and their potentially baby-destroying plot.

And this, to be blunt, is the issue with Boss Baby-it would be enough to stretch the first half of the film into a decent adaption of the original picture book, with the Boss Baby's grip over the house growing until Tim either realises that he was once as dictatorial as the new arrival, or to make a babies vs. Dogs film around the second half, but as it is, Boss Baby is almost...over complex-whilst Dreamworks in general have always seemed a company more adept at juggling multiple plot lines than Disney's usual approach of a single strong story, Boss Baby goes over-the-top in its complexity, with magic milk formulae, ever-young dogs being fired across the world via a rocket on the orders of a former baby-boss, a chase involving the Mary-Poppins attired brother of the former baby, several other babies in various push-along cars, and an Evel Knieval bike jump over a train, and the list goes on.

Whilst this leads to some excellent sight-gags along the way, with a plane entirely inhabited by Elvis impersonators on their way to Vegas, with subtitled Elvis-isms, no less, a second chase through a gigantic hamster habitat, and at least three surprisingly decent versions of the Beatles' "Blackbird"(which I was very surprised to find did not promptly pop up at the end of the film), it also leads to the film getting over-complex needlessly, and in places, even its slight run time could do with a minute or two of chopping down.

Nevertheless, as with many of Dreamworks' films over the last decade or so, there's a charm, an off the wall sense of fun as to how odd this film can get, without an adherence to whatever the current trends are (heck, this film could have had a third act in which Cats Inc. enter the fray via the Internet), and whilst it may falter or run itself in rings in places, it's nevertheless a solid film exploring being no-longer an only child, and indeed brotherhood.

Rating: Recommended.