The Boss Baby (2017)
Reviewed by Markus Watson
Rated: PG. Running time: 1 hour 37 min.
Our content rating (1-10): Violence 2: Language 0: Sex/Nudity 0.
Our star rating (1-5); 4
Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Matthew 7:9-11
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
And that is what we are!
1 John 3:1a
God is love.
1 John 4:16b
The Boss Baby is a cute movie for kids that attempts to help older siblings cope with the arrival of a baby brother or sister. The story focuses on Tim Templeton (Miles Bakshi), a fun-loving little boy with an active imagination and parents (Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow) who love him. At bedtime one night, Tim’s parents ask him if he’d like to have a baby brother. With great contentment as he drifts off to sleep, Tim says, “No, thanks. I’m good.”
Of course, Tim has no choice; a baby brother is on the way. And when he arrives, baby brother is wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase! Mom and Dad don’t seem to think it weird, but Tim knows better. The worst part, Tim fears, is that if his parents love his little brother, they won’t have as much love to give him. Love, he believes, is a limited commodity.
Tim eventually discovers that Boss Baby (voiced by Alec Baldwin, and who remains nameless through most of the movie) has been sent on a mission from BabyCorp (from which all babies originate). PuppyCo, a puppy company, has a secret new puppy whose cuteness will cause all parents to stop loving their kids—because, it is believed, the amount of love a parent has to offer is limited. Boss Baby’s mission is to stop PuppyCo from launching the secret puppy.
The rest of the movie is filled with delightful, kid-friendly adventure as Tim and Boss Baby realize they have mutual interests and team up to put PuppyCo out of business. In the end, it turns out that the whole story about Boss Baby took place in Tim’s imagination. A grown up Tim is telling the story to his young daughter to help her understand that he won’t love her less just because she will soon have a baby sister.
While The Boss Baby isn’t the most amazing children’s movie I’ve ever seen, my own kids (ages 12 and 9) really enjoyed it. They laughed a lot throughout the movie. And I had a good time, too.
I appreciated the movie’s focus on the limitlessness of love. I have certainly found this to be true in my own life. With each new child (I also have a 4-year-old), I haven’t had to reallocate some of my love from one child to another, dividing my love between my three children. My love for all my kids has grown!
The love of a parent for their children is a good image for the love God has for us. “God is love,” the apostle John tells us. God is love. And God’s love for his children is infinite. With each new child born into the human race, God’s love expands to include that child. And I believe God’s love for each of his children is even deeper than a human parent’s love for his or her child.
Tim discovered that his parents had more love for him than he could have imagined. And that knowledge set him free to love his little brother. As we discover the deep love of God for us, we, too, are set free to love our fellow humans as brothers and sisters in the family of God.
This review with a set of questions will be in the May 2017 issue of VP.