The Boss Baby

"Born leader."

2017 1h 37m EN

😐

6.5

MID

★6.5TMDB · 7,599

AnimationComedyFamily

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A story about how a new baby's arrival impacts a family, told from the point of view of a delightfully unreliable narrator, a wildly imaginative 7 year old named Tim.

“Born leader.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Miles Bakshi
Tim (voice)
Alec Baldwin
Boss Baby (voice)
Jimmy Kimmel
Dad (voice)
Lisa Kudrow
Mom (voice)
Steve Buscemi
Francis Francis (voice)
Tobey Maguire
Adult Tim / Narrator (voice)
James McGrath
Wizzie / Elvis Impersonator (voice)
Conrad Vernon
Eugene (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Tom McGrath
Writers: Ennio Torresan Jr., Michael McCullers
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$125M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.2× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Boss Baby Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

263+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Steve Mazzaro. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor James Ryan shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Miles Bakshi and Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Kimmel carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tom McGrath directs. Steve Mazzaro scores. James Ryan cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$125M budget — tentpole studio territory.
2Made its money back 4.2× over at the box office.
3Released 9 years ago.
4Part of the "The Boss Baby Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5263+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Original score by Steve Mazzaro. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor James Ryan shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Miles Bakshi and Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Kimmel carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Born leader.".
10IMDB entry: tt3874544 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 12 themes, including "baby", "villain", "family relationships", "puppy".

The technical file

Original score: Steve Mazzaro
Editing: James Ryan
Production design: David James
VFX supervisor: Vanitha Rangaraju
Sound: Paul N.J. Ottosson
Runtime: 97 min · 1h 37m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $125,000,000
Box office: $527,965,936
Return: 422% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Boss Baby (2017)

Part of

The Boss Baby Collection

The adventures of Tim and his brother, Ted, A.K.A. the Boss Baby.

Also by

Tom McGrath

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2017-08-10
★ 7/10
The baby on a mission! If you ask anybody from the pre 90s, they would say their love for animated feature started with 'Toy Story'. But mine was DreamWorks' 'Antz'. So this production house might not be as good as Disney or Pixar, but still a better one than the rest of those who are in the same business, except Sony who comes equal. I wanted this film to be good, yeah, it is a box office hit, but not critically. The regular animated film goer accepted it. And I think as well, it is entertaining, so much fun in parts, if not the entire film. The story of a boy whose happy life being an only child has taken away from his newborn little brother. Then one day he discovers the baby could speak and came to the house with a bigger plan. Knowing what it is and joining hands with him to tackle is what the remaining narration covers. Quite fun film. Animation, story and all the adventures were good. The voice-over was great. Alec Baldwin was awesome, but it's fair to praise the technicians, the animators. At first, I thought some of the jokes were rude, if the film is for families, particularly for the kids. But when I watched the rest of the film, it did not look going anymore worse. A simple story and predictable, but it was enjoyable, that makes you forget yourself for a while. Despite the mixed response in acceptance, I've heard the sequel is on, in a couple of years. I think it is a good decision, even the storyline, how it ended encourages that. It's not going to be your favourite animated film, but surely not to be missed if you love animation. 7/10
Filipe Manuel Neto2024-06-09
★ 6/10
An elegant and well-made film, but with far-fetched, forced ideas and a certain lack of “soul”. I am aware that my generation, “Generation Y”, is the first in the history of my country where the majority of us are only children. With the increase in education, health and food costs and low salaries without corresponding increases, for most families it has become insane to have more than one child. And the truth is that many of us will prefer not to have children, or we will become parents late (I think this helps explain the issue of “love for puppy dogs”, in the film and in real life, after all they're cheaper and aren't indelible bonds that connect us to others, ex-wives or ex-husbands). I can speak for myself: I'm close to forty years old, and I have no idea of starting a family, I have no conditions and I feel that my future has been mortgaged by the financial crises that society has been experiencing since the beginning of the millennium. I'm sure I won't be the only one who feels this way. This film, in a joyful and naive way, is a portrait of all this by showing how a seven-year-old child finds the birth of his brother strange. I already understood that love and rivalry are contradictory feelings that are part of what it means to have siblings: they may compete for their parents' love and attention, but they often come together when necessary. And the film shows us all this by creating a whirlwind story in which the new member of the family is also a disguised executive with authoritarian tics and who behaves like a “Donald Trump in diapers”: giving orders, grumbling, shouting, firing everything and everyone like the worst CEO we can imagine. To be honest, I only saw the film now because, at the time, it seemed so uninteresting and forced that I didn't pay to see it in the cinema, contradicting the success it had at the box office and joining me with a mass of suspicious people who thought that the critics could have been right in the way she bombed the film in the media. And, in fact, we have to agree that DreamWorks has already done better things and seems to be in an inspiration crisis. The quality of the drawings and animations, the vibrant colors, the good character design and the technical refinement are still visible, but there is a lack of good ideas and some soul. This film makes an effort, appeals to fraternal feelings and the public apparently responded well, but it is not a film at the level of past successes. As for the soundtrack, which features some notable songs, it's reasonable, but not so good as to be worth it on its own, and the humor is suitably sarcastic, although the jokes can, at times, be more aimed at adults than children. (I doubt most kids know what a memo is). The film, being an animation, does not have a cast, but features the participation of several well-known voice actors, with particular emphasis on Allec Baldwin (who gave the voice of Baby) and Steve Buscemi, who gave the voice of the story's villain. Still worthy of mention and a positive note are the contributions of Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow and Miles Bakshi.
CinemaSerf2024-12-30
★ 6/10
Well here we don't even bother with the gooseberry bush, let along the maternity ward, as the young besuited baby arrives to join mum, dad and elder brother "Tim". These kids don't exactly hit it off. Is that because "Tim" is jealous of the love his parents smother their new arrival with? Or is it because he doesn't behave like a baby at all, just a diminutive business executive who speaks and acts like someone forty times his age? At his most confused, "Tim" also discovers that this rugrat has a more sinister objective and that the boss of the global megacorp "Puppy Co." has instigated a plan that will forever change the loving dynamic between people and their favourite pets. It seems that the only chance he has to thwart this dastardly plan is to work together with his duplicitous and bossy but incredibly astute sibling. Loads of escapades now follow as the pair have to do some intrepid detective work, risk life and limb, and even join an Elvis impersonators convention. Now had they just left the scenario with a degree of obnoxious baby menace, then this might have worked better for me. Sadly, though, they hadn't the courage of the original conviction of the film and so it drifts all too readily into a cheesy world of sentiment and predictability that neuters the whole thrust of the thing. It does take a bit of a pop at the corporate world and at it's approach to monetising children and pets so shamelessly, but the fun is sucked out of it simply by relying on a mediocre script and a soundtrack of adapted ballads whilst the sense of mischief just peters away. It all just goes too goo goo ga ga in the end, and though I get I'm not the demographic, I still thought it an opportunity for something a bit different just wasted.