The Boss Baby: Family Business

The Boss Baby: Family Business is a 2021 American 3D computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 2010 picture book of the same name by Marla Frazee, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The second installment in The Boss Baby franchise, and serving as a sequel to the 2017 film, the film will be directed by Tom McGrath, from a screenplay by Michael McCullers, and star the voice of Alec Baldwin as the title character, alongside James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Eva Longoria, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Goldblum. The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, 2021 in traditional and select RealD 3D and Dolby Cinema locations, by Universal Pictures; it will also stream on Peacock for 60 days.

Plot
Now adults, Theodore Templeton, and his estranged brother take a magical formula that transforms them into babies for 48 hours. Together, they must now go undercover to prevent an evil genius from turning fellow toddlers into monstrous brats.

Bad Baby Qualities
The sequel falls short of the franchise as it lacks charm or charisma that made this franchise any good. Since Dreamworks Animation said the final movie in the franchise, This also ended the franchise on a pathetic & mediocre note.

Making a second Boss Baby movie, while not a bad idea on paper, isn't completely necessary for starters, since the first movie already had a decent ending that could have ended the franchise on a fine note. This sequel most likely exists because Universal Studios and Dreamworks Animation saw box office success of the first and therefore wanted more money, so the franchise had to milk for a useless second installment that no one didn’t ask for. Keep that in mind that for you asked, this plan backfired massively, to the point where they canceled its theatrical release entirely without China because of the rise of COVID 19 where they were living during that time, and sent straight to Peacock, where it can easily be pirated by those online hackers that don't have an Peacock subscription.

The plot is pretty bland and above the nose for a lot of people.


 * It also contains dumb moments, much like the previous, especially toilet humor being the biggest offender.
 * On topic with toilet humor, One example is Ted and Tim pinch each other in the chests while fighting over the formula, The "Casual Fridays" poster is very inappropriate!
 * The writing is just a cliched disappointment, but the tone is completely so awful  and rushed, which makes the summary a lot harder to follow at times.
 * Despite the suggestion at the end of the first movie that a sequel could focus on Tim's daughter and her sister, Tim's eldest daughter doesn't seem to have much to do even though she could be involved in the adventure.


 * Several scenes happen with very little rhyme or reason, including several generic fantasy sequences and even a musical number between Tim and Tabitha.
 * Unlike with monsters turning into humans in Hotel Transylvania 4, the concept of the whole new baby formula that turns adults into babies idea seems poorly excused to bring back the younger designs of Tim and Theodore in the dumbest way imaginable, There couldn’t been funny jokes with babies and their adults lives, But this movie uses the concept rather dumber way.
 * Jimbo, Stacy, and the Triplets, three characters from the previous, are reduced to cameos to the point where Stacy doesn't even get a line.
 * The relationship between kid-Tim and Tabitha may be fine on paper, it is more rushed, just like with the relationship with Sid & Brooke in Ice Age: Collision Course.

Stunt Casting: Even voice actor Amy Sedaris started as a role as Tina, which was drowned out in the entire movie, which is yet another example of stunt casting or a miscast just to get people to watch it, This was backfired way back when the movie was going to be in theaters before they canceled the theatrical release because of COVID-19, making Amy an miscast.

Releasing a Christmas themed movie on a July release date is such a strange idea because it’s too early at that time, and yet already three months past April, May, and June, Even though the movie was originally planned to be released on March 26th and September 17th of 2021, but got pushed due to the COVID 19 pandemic that once happened, and Christmas movies always released in late November and December.

Unlike other animated movies like Hotel Transylvania 4, Rumble, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, & The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, another problem with the movie is the pacing is way too fast, even for 107 minutes long, it feels more like 40 minutes long runtime, the whole plot makes it so hard to follow at times which makes the pacing awful, the movie is in fact filled with useless filler every now and then, making the whole plot rushed and minimal.

This movie houses a lot of continuity errors and inconsistencies that rectons or contradicts the previous, similar with The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild & Hotel Transylvania 4:


 * Although Tim's daughter tells him and Theodore that the new Baby Formula turns adults back into babies for two days, Tim rejuvenates into a kid but not as a baby. This could be explained because Theodore had more of the formula than him, but as it is, it only happens because the filmmakers needed him to return to his younger self from the first film.
 * Another error is when Ted Sr. and Janice bring up how Tim told them about how Theodore could talk as a baby and how their boss tried to kidnap them, even though their memories were erased near the end of the previous movie.
 * When Tim is transformed back into his younger version, he keeps his grown up voice. This admittedly isn't the biggest issue, but it does sound weird compared to Miles Bakshi's more natural child voice and does somewhat question why they didn't just bring him back to do his child voice.

This movie is overdosed with shameless product placement, such as the Hot Wheels logo appearing on adult Tim’s T-Shirt, Ted and the other babies using Play-Doh for an escape plan, and the day being saved by combining Mentos with cola. Of course, while a few DreamWorks Animation movies like Antz, Madagascar, Bee Movie, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, Turbo, Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Shark Tale featured product placement, at least they used the product placement efficiently parodied in 2004’s Shrek 2 and Shark Tale by making them have minor appearances and focuses mostly on their synopsis thus making them don’t stand out as shameless filler, but here, the product placement is used as plot devices in a few scenes unlike those movies combined, making the product placement in this and the first movie, which is unacceptable for a DreamWorks Animation movie.

A clip from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (a better movie) is shown at one point in a theater during the chase scene, this is somewhat a strange easter egg because it tried to “promote” the previous Spirit Untamed, which comes off pretty strange.

It tries way too hard to be hip with the kids with smartphone references and social media parodies, especially since there was a thankfully scrapped quote from the official trailer where Tim's youngest daughter tells both him and Theodore "Now you work for me, boomers". While the line was removed, Theodore still says "It's Night of the Living Boomers!" regardless.

The concept of a talking baby wanting to brainwash adult minds can be a decent idea on paper, but executed pretty poorly because how badly it got rehashed, however, Dr Armstrong is a very monotonous and bland antagonist, and he feels more of a bootleg of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy, and  he’s just ripoff of Dave from The Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie and Koto from All Hail Jillian, despite these two being likable & imitating antagonists, Dr Armstrong is one of those antagonists that failed pretty badly.


 * A very dumb executed plot-twist where it's revealed that Dr. Armstrong is actually a baby the entire time.

Extremely lame dialogue, such as Tina saying "Now you work for me, boomers".

There are still some dated references to popular culture in a Dreamworks animated movie like using Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".

The Dreamworks logo is reused from the previous without making a new variant for the sequel, which is outright dumb even for DreamWorks Animation standards.

Good Baby Qualities

 * 1) The movie does not maintain continuity with the Netflix television series The Boss Baby: Back in Business and definitely retcons the series as non-canonical. Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro's score is pretty good at best. The animation’s pretty imaginative and the Christmas setting is admittedly beautiful.  It isn't all that offensive and is completely harmless for kids as the gross-out/farting jokes did slightly get toned down.  The film does at least have a heartwarming ending, where Tim’s family comes together for Christmas and Dr. Armstrong gets reunited with his family.

Reception
Like the first film, The Boss Baby: Family Business received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the humor but criticism for the aimless plot. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "It's more C-level than C-suite, but as a painless diversion for the kids, this Boss Baby manages some decent Family Business.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed reviews".

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