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The Boss Baby review

Check out our review of The Boss Baby - is it any good and how suitable is it for kids?

The Boss Baby

Certificate: U

Voices of: Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire

Release date: 2017

3 out of 5

3

Seven year old Tim isn’t very impressed to find his parents’ attention taken by a baby brother – especially because, thanks to Tim’s overactive imagination, the new addition to the family is a suit-wearing, briefcase-carrying little mogul who sounds like Alec Baldwin. It seems the Boss Baby has been sent to Tim’s house by Baby Corp (a sort of heavenly factory where babies come from) on a secret mission to gain intel on a new breed of puppy that threatens to steal away the hearts of adults away so they forget all about cute, cuddly babies.

While this animated movie starts out as a comedy about a boy dealing with a challenger for his parents’ attention (similar to the rivalry between Toy Story’s Buzz and Woody), it then becomes a junior buddy adventure as Tim realises that helping Boss Baby complete his mission will lead to his departure.

It’s the first half that boasts some of the funniest and most poignant moments. A garden chase as Tim tries to snatch back evidence of Boss Baby’s ability to talk is a hilarious treat – especially as we also see it from the adults’ point of view (they think the kids are cutely playing) – and watching Boss Baby try and chair a meeting with other nappy-wearing tots is a hoot that will have both kids and adults chortling. And there’s even a heart-rending moment for parents as we see Tim lying alone in bed sadly wishing for the stories and song he used to get at bedtime before his sibling came along.

In terms of talking babies, Boss Baby may not be as astute as Family Guy’s Stewie, or as silly as the one voiced by Bruce Willis in Look Who’s Talking, but thanks to that booming, commanding voice of Baldwin’s he’s certainly the most oddly adorable. Baldwin could read out the instructions to a kettle and make it sound like the most mesmerising thing you’ve heard all week, so he’s the perfect choice for this Pampers-clad despot, and is nicely supported by Kimmel and Kudrow as dad and mom, Maguire as the adult Tim and Steve Buscemi as Puppy Co.’s owner.

Grown-ups may grumble that the movie owes a lot to films like Pixar’s Toy Story and Inside Out, but kids will love the colourful, imaginative tale that’s packed with fun – and boasts the cutest fart joke ever seen on a cinema screen.

Is The Boss Baby suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...

None.

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