He is not like any other baby, in fact he isn’t a baby at all! Alec Baldwin lends his voice to the title character of The Boss Baby, who walks, talks and fights like an adult but looks like a baby. He is on a mission — to save babies from extinction — and for that, he has to take refuge in the Templeton house. There is only one problem and that is the elder brother Tim who suspects that Baby is a fraud and is hell bent on jeopardising the mission.

The film also deals with the issue of sibling rivalry when a new member arrives, dealt with here from the perspective of the elder sibling. It is a ‘seven-year-old’s eye view’ of moments that change his life forever, and he wants to have nothing to do with the change. The father and mother (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow) shift all their energies to the new guy and that’s what makes the hyper sibling go to lengths to prove that the new kid on the block is not a kid at all! Tim has a point because the toddler wears a suit, dons a watch, keeps a telephone to address his employers and is always alert.

The Boss Baby will make both the young and old laugh — the jokes that happen in ‘baby meetings’ are meant for the young while the battle scenes featuring the theme of SWAT and Six Million Dollar Man is something elders can relate to. However, Boss Baby’s main rivals are the puppies who take cuteness to another level, and he and his employers feel that both babies and puppies can’t live in the same universe! Add the wittiness of an adult in any baby and give him loads of cash to waste and you will know what kind of baby, Baby Boss is!

The Baby is short in height but is influential to such a level that by the time the movie reaches mid-stage, the two brothers are ‘brothers-in-arms’! Director Tom McGrath must also be thanked for coming up with such a wonderful narration that keeps you glued to the edge of your seat, knowing that the plot is for kids and not something that is happening in the real world.

The movie is rated PG for mild rude humour.

Published in Dawn, Young World April 8th, 2017