The Boss Baby

Loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee, it was directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Michael McCullers, and stars the voices of Alec Baldwin as the title character, along with Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Miles Bakshi, and Tobey Maguire.

The first installment in The Boss Baby franchise, the plot follows a boy helping his baby brother who is a secret agent in the war for adults’ love between babies and puppies.

The Boss Baby premiered at the Miami International Film Festival on March 12, 2017, and was released in the United States on March 31.

The film received mixed reviews from critics upon release, who praised its animation and voice performances (especially that of Baldwin) but criticized the complicated plot, the pacing, and humor.

It grossed $528 million worldwide against its $125 million budget. The film received Best Animated Feature nominations at the Academy Awards, Annie Awards, and Golden Globes.

It was one of three DreamWorks films to be the last to be distributed by 20th Century Fox alongside Trolls and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

Following NBCUniversal’s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016, Universal Pictures began distributing DreamWorks’s films, starting with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019).

A Netflix television series, The Boss Baby: Back in Business, premiered on April 6, 2018, while a sequel film, The Boss Baby: Family Business, was released in theaters and on Peacock on July 2, 2021.

Another Netflix television series, The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, premiered on May 19, 2022.

Baby wears a suit and tie and acts like a normal baby around parents and adults, but walks and talks like an adult when parents are absent. One day, Baby holds a staff meeting with other infants, under the guise of a neighborhood play date.

Tim attempts to record them on a tape before Baby and his cronies spot and chase him, resulting in it being destroyed. Tim is grounded until he learns to get along with Baby.

Later, Baby reveals the truth as to why he is in his house and where he comes from. He and Tim suck a special pacifier that allows them to see Baby Corp, where babies come from.

Most babies go to families, but those unresponsive to tickling are sent to management, where they are given a special baby formula that allows them to think and behave like adults while remaining young forever.

Baby explains he is on a special mission to investigate the declining love for babies due to puppies, and came to the Templetons as Tim’s parents work for Puppy Co. Once his mission is done, he will leave.

However, the boys hear Baby’s boss threatening to fire him if he fails, which would mean Baby would have to stay and grow up with the Templeton family. Tim and Baby team up to prevent this.

On Take Your Kid to Work Day, the parents take Tim and Baby with them to Puppy Co. While investigating, they are caught by Francis Francis, who used to be the CEO of Baby Corp but got fired due to aging from lactose intolerance.

He takes Baby’s formula to create a “Forever Puppy” incapable of aging, which will take all love from babies and give him his revenge on BabyCorp.

Francis takes Tim’s parents to a Las Vegas conference and leaves his brother Eugene to pose as a female nanny to watch the children. The boys attack Eugene with fake vomit and escape from him with the help of neighborhood toddlers.

They reach Las Vegas, where they find Francis ready to launch a rocket of Forever Puppies out into the world. Tim’s parents are trapped below the rocket to be burned.

Tim and Baby fight Francis on a catwalk, making him fall into a vat of formula that turns him back into a baby, and Eugene takes him home. Tim and Baby save Tim’s parents and eject the Forever Puppies from the rocket before it launches.

Baby goes back to Baby Corp and becomes CEO. BabyCorp workers erase evidence of Baby and the parents’ memories of him. One of these workers asks Tim if he would like to forget about Baby, but he declines.

Tim and Baby soon realize they miss each other deeply, and Tim invites him back, saying that he can have all of his parents love.

Baby returns as a regular baby named Theodore “Ted” Templeton, realizing love is something that grows, instead of being divided.

Years later, in the present day, an adult Tim and Ted tell the story to Tim’s eldest daughter, who is apprehensive about the arrival of her newborn baby sister.

After the adults leave, the newborn girl reveals she is a Boss Baby, too, surprising the elder daughter.