‘The Boss Baby’ is a film from DreamWorks Animation starring Alec Baldwin as a talking baby who wears a suit whilst infiltrating an unsuspecting family, seemingly ruining the life of the only child, Tim (Miles Christopher Bakshi). Going into this film i expected nothing more than a very basic and formulaic animated film that wouldn’t offer much amusement for anyone outside of the main target audience. But to my surprise i actually came out of this film having somewhat enjoyed what i saw. Now obviously being a kid focused film you are going to have a fairly straightforward plot and the occasional fart and poop joke but this actually offered more for a family audience. There were some good laughs spread throughout the film most of which a result of Alec Baldwins quick wit, the plot was actually somewhat enjoyable and where the ending is pretty predictable the journey was actually quite fun. Also the film does some pretty cool and creative stuff with the animation occasionally that makes for some pretty fun sequences.

In terms of the humour (aside from the kid focused dumbed down humour) there was actually a fair amount spread pretty evenly throughout the film that provides some measure of entertainment for an older audience who may be accompanying kids to the cinema. Most of this is a result of the great casting of Alec Baldwin as the Boss Baby, his comedic timing and wit was great in providing the occasional laugh out loud moment. Just hearing his voice come from the mouth of a baby was somewhat amusing on its own anyway. Aside from Baldwins input though the rest of the humour is mainly slapstick stuff where a small handful of moments were ok but the majority of it was just there for the kids, which is fine. Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow play the parents and they were fine in their very limited roles. Steve Buscemi plays the villain of the film and i thought his voice fit the role and and made for a pretty decent character whose evil mastermind plan was pretty questionable.

The film is paced pretty well and it stays relatively consistent in the fact that it moves at a pretty rapid pace but not so quick that you have no idea what is happening. I was invested in the story, it’s obviously nothing of the ‘high concept’ sort but it was different enough and interesting enough to where i was never really bored by it, it was just fine. The clashing between Boss Baby and Tim throughout the story made the journey a bearable one that i thought paid off in the end. The film incorporates themes regarding the importance of family and all that but it does so in a subtle way that doesn’t drag the film down which was good. Also i want to praise the people in the animation department because throughout the film there are sections they completely change up the animation style to fit the tone of what is happening at that moment and it was pretty cool to see. It’s nothing super drastic but it is a show of distinct originality as you don’t really see it done in other animated films.

So in the end The Boss Baby is not going to blow you away and become your favourite animated movie of the year. But what it will do is provide a tonne of entertainment for kids, and give you something pretty amusing to watch so you don’t regret the decision to watch it with them. Alec Baldwin is the catalyst for the majority of the good humour in the film and he makes sure there isn’t a dull moment in a film that could have been so much worse. And hey, it made a tonne of money and it’s getting a sequel, so it did something right.

5.9/10