It has become sort of a tradition to take my daughter to the cinema whenever she has a week off from school. A couple of weeks ago we decided to go and she wanted to see The Boss Baby. We went and I wish we would have chosen a different film.
7-year-old Tim feels like he is one of the happiest children in the world. His parents give him all the attention he wants, play special songs for him and read him three bedtime stories. With his imaginative fantasy the house and the garden transform into places of adventure. His life changes dramatically when the Boss Baby, suited up, wearing a watch and carrying a briefcase appears in front of his house and quickly takes over everything. Tim finds out that the baby is able to talk and has a secret plan. He’s planning to change all that and get rid of his new baby brother.
The Boss Baby is one of those movies which is sold extremely well by its trailer and shows a couple of very funny moments. As a whole though this movie is very disappointing and talking to a couple of parents I wasn’t the only one feeling that. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly it is the way in which Tim and the baby treat each other, which is anything but pleasant and therefore not a positive role model for young children. There is nothing wrong with the concept of a smart baby, but when it is someone who only is after success, a corner office and who doesn’t care about people and who is sort of praised for wanting to do that you are teaching kids that that’s the way to have success. This results in a film with some strange dynamics and a story about competition which hasn’t been executed with enough care and feeling. In other words, a disappointment.
