Pricewaterhousecoopers has a sick sense of humor, don’t they?
I mean, first they had only white nominees one year. Last year they screwed up the Best Picture envelope. And now, they’ve nominated Boss Baby for Best Animated Feature film.
Look… It’s not gonna win. I really don’t think so. It’s not gonna lose to Loving Vincent or Coco. So… I decided to figure out why it scored a nomination in the first place. Let’s do this.
Before starting the movie, I considered Boss Baby to be high-concept garbage. I wasn’t wrong.
I am not sure how to describe the plot without going in depth about it. It’s essentially a story about a boy named Tim Templeton growing to love his talking baby brother. It’s a very typical “I hated/feared you, but then we were forced to work together and then learned that we loved each other” storyline that you see in Disney princess films.
Now, what gets weird is why Tim and Boss Baby start working together. Without context, here it goes: Puppies are more popular among humans, which is causing a decrease of interest in babies. Boss Baby doesn’t like that, so he descends from Baby Corp to the Templeton household. The Templeton parents work at Puppy Co., which is Baby Corp’s direct business adversary (they’re primarily responsible for the shift in demand from babies to puppies). If Boss Baby can put an end to this shift, then he can leave the Templeton house and get promoted to head of Baby Corp. Tim Templeton, upset that the attention his parents gave him has dwindled, wants Boss Baby to leave ASAP. Thus, the kids join together to further their goals.
That’s the plot. There’s a place in the sky called Baby Corp (there isn’t an origin for this place. I really don’t know where it came from), an evil business that deals with puppies, and a regular suburban household. It’s mind-numbing.
Sprinkled into this are strange (and misplaced) references, anti-business/anti-upper class jokes, jumpscares, Elvis impersonators, and Steve Buscemi. This is the second time I have written a review where Steve Buscemi voices some weird character. Is he the Nic Cage of the voice acting world now?
This movie upsets me, because it has a potential to be a solid 8/10, but it relies too heavily on stupid gags and adult jokes. While it’s not as banal and upsetting as The Emoji Movie was, it was still banal and upsetting. It’s similar to Bee Movie, except with less meme potential, meaning it’s probably worse than Bee Movie. It’s another one of these celeb-voiced cash-grab pieces that appeals to every demographic. It’s an Illumination Entertainment type. It’s miserable.
But oh! The animation was so good!
The real heroes of Boss Baby are not Tim and Boss Baby, nor Dreamworks, nor Alec Baldwin. The reason this movie is great is that it’s so visually appealing. There are scenes where we get to look into Tim’s imagination, and it is crazy and dynamic and makes me smile.
I think that this was an animator’s movie. As an actual piece of film, all the style shifts don’t play out. For example. there is a scene where Tim wants to spy on the Boss Baby. The entire sequence is 2D and exclusively red, black, and white.
It came out of nowhere, and was a little jarring tone-wise, but it was super cool to watch. There are tons of moments like this that I want to keep rewatching. In this case, the parts were way better than the whole.
This year was kind of meh on the Animated front. Before watching Boss Baby, I thought that fact was the only reason this film ever made the nomination list. After watching, however, I see some method behind the madness. The movie is good to look at. It just sucks that this amazing animation was wasted on something as mediocre as Boss Baby.
I honestly think people should go see the first seven minutes of the film (you know, before the Boss Baby shows up). You’ll see what I mean.
Some out of context quotes:
Tim: “We could share!”
Baby: “You obviously didn’t go to business school.”
Baby: “Yes, I am the Baby Jesus.”
Baby: “I want you to suck it.”
Tim: “You suck it!”
B: “No it’s for you to suck!”
T: “I’m not sucking that!”
B: “Suck it.”
T: “I don’t know where it’s been!”
B: “It’s not where it’s been! It’s where it’ll take you. Don’t you wanna know where babies come from?”
Tim: “My dad says, ‘Those who can, do. Those who can’t, supervise.’”
Baby: “Your father is a hippie.”
Baby: “I just threw up a noodle and swallowed it.”
Baby: “I’m dead down there.”
Baby: “I’m not used to being tickled. Well, once at a corporate retreat. But you know those things get weird.”
Baby: “This, Templeton… is first class.”
Tim: “Why is it empty?”
Baby: “No one can afford it. That’s what makes it so wonderful!”
Tim: “The people of Long Island do NOT know how to make an iced tea!”
“Here you go, kid. Go get yourself a horse.”
Image Credit: Netflix, 4