The Boss Baby (2017)

Jack and I laughed a lot at this silly story of a 7 year old boy whose baby brother is actually an adult in baby guise sent to ensure the popularity of babies in the world. Like Calvin and Hobbes, the baby talks when the kids are alone and gurgles or cries when adults are present. Oscar- (and other) nominated, the movie has too many culture references to list. Okay, here's one: there's some Pink Panther-style animation. It can be streamed for a small fee on iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube.

We've seen the trailer many times so it's easy to get used to the voice of Alec Baldwin (last blogged for Paris Can Wait) as the Boss Baby. His brother Timothy is ably voiced by Miles Bakshi, grandson of Ralph Bakshi (cartoonist and animator known for Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, and the Fritz the Cat (1972) movie). Adult Timothy narrates with the voice of Tobey Maguire (most recently in these pages for The Great Gatsby). Timothy's parents are voiced by Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow, and Steve Buscemi (last blogged for Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer) appears in the second act as a villain.

Tom McGrath (we didn't see any of the three Madagascar movies he directed) helms from a script by Michael McCullers (co-writer with Mike Myers of two Austin Powers sequels, director/writer of Baby Mama (2008), "additional screenplay material" for Mr. Peabody & Sherman, more) adapted from the 2010 picture book by Marla Frazee. Here is the entire book, read aloud with the pages displayed.

Composer Hans Zimmer (most recently scored Blade Runner 2049) and Steve Mazzaro (apparently a frequent collaborator) give us a soundtrack (here's one track and another) that goes from childlike to thriller-style, supplemented by many songs listed here, including many covers of the Beatles' Blackbird.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences aren't enthralled, averaging 52% for both. It's certainly not great art but we had fun and suspect that it could be entertaining for little kids (as long as the initial concept of using up all your parents' love isn't too distressing). It's rated PG.