After a hit film and then several years as a Netflix series, the bossy babies of Boss Baby are back on the big screen with the kinetic, peculiar The Boss Baby: Family Business, in which a now-grown Ted and Tim are de-aged and ordered to infiltrate a suspiciously precocious school. The movie hits some nice, sweet notes, and has insanely busy action that will keep restless minds occupied, but overall it's a mid-level animated distraction that doesn't check off any exceptional boxes.
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The Boss Baby: Family Business continues telling the stories of Tim Templeton (James Marsden) and Ted Templeton Jr., the titular "Boss Baby" (Alec Baldwin). The brothers are now adults, with Ted being an incredibly wealthy and successful entrepreneur, while Tim is living happily as a stay-at-home father of two daughters: 7-year old Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt) and secret Baby Corp agent Tina (Amy Sedaris). When a new emergency arises in her organization, Tina reveals herself to Tim and Uncle Ted, reminds them of Baby Corp's existence, and transforms them back into children to act as undercover agents.
As Tina explains, her baby bosses back at the head office have sent her to reunite Tim and Ted to investigate the principal of Tabitha’s competition-obsessed private school, a smooth-taking technocrat named Dr. Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum). First, she shrinks the two of them back down to their ages in the original film – Tim a grade-schooler, Ted a baby – then sends them off to school, where Tim gets to befriend his own daughter in the guise of a new classmate, and Ted is forced to rally his fellow babies to break out of the nursery.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the underlying premise of the Boss Baby franchise, but it can't be denied that it's all mildly unsettling. "Creepy" might be a strong word, but there's definitely a meager discomfort involved in watching animated toddlers "adult" everywhere. Family Business adds an extra layer of oddball unbalance by having a grown Tim (voiced by James Marsden, who sounds a lot like Andy Samberg while doing this heightened animated voice) become a young kid who befriends his own daughter, Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), at her advanced elementary school. Sure, Tim's on a mission for BabyCorp but his secondary, more personal op is to spy on her. He even gets himself invited over to his own house, by his own wife (Eva Longoria), so that he can be shown around her room as a child peer. It's bizarre and off-putting.
But the Boss Baby saga as a whole is kind of gently icky, so what's one more layer of uncomfortableness, right? The film just eventually becomes a whirring blur of chaotic colors, creating perfectly fine fare for young kids looking for content and parents yearning to not watch something totally atrocious. It's clever enough, and the sentiment -- involving Ted and Tim reconciling after years of estrangement -- is pronounced enough to pack a soft and noble punch.
Jeff Goldblum and Amy Sedaris liven up this funky follow-up as the villain and new Boss Baby, respectively. Goldblum works his Goldblum magic here, just doing his own thing (which is basically a form of self-parody that we've all come to love) as Dr. Armstrong, the head of the prestigious Acorn Center for Advanced Childhood - a kid academy hatching a nefarious plot to turn adults into controllable puppets. Again, Goldblum isn't doing anything we're not used to, but the film also noticeably perks up whenever he's yukking it up.
Sedaris too is a great addition, as Tina, Tim's youngest, who acts as the talking BabyCorp catalyst for this new parade of mischief. She and Ted, while both BabyCorp superstars differ in opinion over corporate climate, with Tina valuing teamwork over cutthroat climbing. Alec Baldwin is the big returning star here (though Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow also pop back in a grandparents role) and he still provides some very dry, droll Jack Donaghy-style laughs. Especially when baby Ted finds himself saddled with other regular-brained babies and must work to "Shawshank" himself out of their daycare clutches.
The Boss Baby: Family Business has a lot to offer. There are plenty of actions sequences and physical gags that are sure to make young viewers laugh out loud (and probably some parents, too). The animation is inventive, lively, and imaginative, while the few musical numbers offer some welcome variation to the events and visuals. Because the pacing has the occasional lull, younger viewers are apt to fidget and lose interest at points, while older audiences will likely find themselves being pulled out of the moment and questioning the events. Thankfully, there are also plenty of exciting moments and even some clever one-liners to balance that out. The climax in particular offers enough suspense to draw the audience back in and maintain their attention until the end. Overall, The Boss Baby: Family Business is a fun way for adults to spend some time with their kids, and in that regard, the movie completely succeeds in its purpose.
