Boss Baby, back in business
An animated comedy about a bratty baby in a business suit, 'The Boss Baby', is a sweet adventurous tale about sibling rivalry that ultimately becomes a moving tribute to family and brotherhood. This is not a movie about a baby who is the boss of a company. It’s more of a fantastical riff on babies’ tendency to take over their parents’ lives, filtered through the overactive imagination of the baby’s big brother, Tim.
In its very first sequence, The Boss Baby swiftly builds a whole mythology around where babies come from -- a company in the sky called Baby Co., where new infants are produced on an assembly line and gets diapered, powdered, fed before they’re dropped through a chute to their new family. The company’s quality controls dictate that babies who don’t seem to have the cooing temperament that people expect from their infants are funneled into middle management at Baby Co., where they languish in desk farms and drink formula that keeps them babies forever.
Meanwhile, down on earth, Tim has lived a perfect, blissful life as the apple of his parents’ eye for seven years. The family lives in a nice house with a backyard, and they frequently go on “adventures” that are magnified in Tim’s imagination: baths become deep-sea dives, and everyday bike rides are death-defying feats. Tim’s parents both work hard at Puppy Co., but in the evenings they read stories and sing songs and gives five hugs to Tim before bed. It’s a good life. Seven-year-old Tim is an only child, basking in the undivided attention of his parents. He has a wild imagination, dreaming up elaborate imaginary rescue scenarios involving pirates and rocket ships.
Then one day, Tim gets a baby brother. The baby arrives by taxi. He wears a suit and shades, carries a briefcase, and has soon commandeered Mom and Dad’s attention. But he hasn’t exactly warmed to the new family addition, having realized how much attention the baby steals away from him. Much to Tim’s chagrin, no one else seems to think there’s something weird going on.
And things get even weirder when the baby starts telling Tim why he’s arrived. He’s actually Boss Baby, a middle management up-and-comer with aspirations to rise to the top of Baby Co. He’s joined Tim’s family temporarily because he’s on a mission that came straight from corporate to save the baby market from extinction.
It turns out that Tim’s parents’ employer, Puppy Co., has come up with a new product that’s even cuter than babies, threatening to steal the hearts of parents and wipe out demand for babies entirely. The only way to keep the baby market alive — and for Tim to get rid of this horrible little brother, who can return to Baby Co. once the mission is accomplished — is for the two siblings to work together to foil Puppy Co.’s plans. Naturally, this endeavor proves much more complicated than anyone thought. But what happens then? Watch the movie to know.
The Boss Baby, was also No. 1 at the box office after its release that year. But before it was a full-length 90 minute film, it was a 32-page picture book written by award-winning author and illustrator Marla Frazee. Frazee’s youngest son really wanted a kitten so she bought him one. The little kitten was sort of creating havoc in the house. The kitten was pooping underneath the Christmas tree, and on their beds, and in the fireplace. And her 15-year-old told her two weeks after Christmas that they should contact the cat adoption people because the cat was stressing everybody out. Though Frazee told him that if she could raise three of her sons, he can also raise one kitten.
The main idea of The Boss Baby 2010 book, came from this story. Because after she told her son that, she sat down and started to really work on this manuscript with his emotions in mind. She was watching her son, as a 15-year-old, coping in the way that new parents cope when a baby comes into the house. And this little creature becomes the boss of you, and you didn't anticipate that would ever be possible.
After one year of The Boss Baby, as a follow-up Netflix aired a 13 episode series named ‘Boss Baby Back in Business’ also produced by DreamWorks Animation. This recently aired its 4th season on 17 November 2020. By this total of 50 episodes, kids along with adults can feel like they are also on an adventurous journey with the boss baby and the other babies’ team.
On this Tuesday, 24 November 2020, Universal and DreamWorks Animation unveiled the first trailer and poster for ‘The Boss Baby: Family Business’ also known as The Boss Baby 2. It is currently scheduled for release on March 26, 2021. This time the movie also introduces several new characters and elements, including another Boss Baby and a de-aging formula.
In the trailer it is shown that, both Tim and Ted have grown up and gone their mostly separate ways. However, Tim soon discovers his infant daughter Tina is another agent from Baby Corp sent to investigate a nefarious plot. Tina immediately drags Tim and Ted into her current mission, leading them on another wild journey. The ending of the first Boss Baby already hinted Tina's agent status, and the sequel is clearly moving forward on that tease. By introducing a new Boss Baby and turning Ted and Tim back into children, The Boss Baby 2 looks to be largely recreating the circumstances of the first film.
One thing that's new is the introduction of villain Dr. Edwin Armstrong, the person Tina has been investigating. Armstrong is teaching babies how to behave badly, which doesn't bode well for the parents of the world. Additionally, Edwin is the head of Tim's eldest daughter Tabitha's school, meaning Tim will likely have a vested interest in Edwin's plot. Only time will tell if The Boss Baby 2 ends up being as big of a hit as its big brother.
The whole Boss Baby sequels incorporates a heart-filled message about the importance of family in an authentic and broadly way that will appeal to all ages. After all, every family has ups and downs, but at the end of the day they have each other, and that is what matters. This message is seamlessly tied into the film. Family loves us for being exactly who we are, and it's the only place we can truly be ourselves, even if we sometimes throw up on them. If we don't make that time, we run the risk of losing our own innocence, just like Mega Fat CEO Baby. Let’s not be the Mega Fat CEO Baby!
Rumaiysa M Rahman is a 9th grader at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, Dhaka