The Boss Baby - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Boss Baby


Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Going just by the trailer for The Boss Baby I was CERTAIN we were in for an absolutely miserable time. Besides the fun of having Alec Baldwin in the cast, the movie looked like a complete and utter flop. I naturally skipped watching it theatrically and winced when I saw it coming to home video, but I was just a bit curious as the reviews really weren’t that bad. Well, it’s not the end of the world, but this is not exactly the next How to Train Your Dragon either. The Boss Baby is a middle of the road movie that does enough right to entertain the kids and adults equally, while still being a bit too weak to become any sort of classic in our lifetime. It’s cute, fluffy, and completely forgettable, but still had me chuckling more than a few times with little sly winks and nods to our childhood films.

One of the stresses of being a first born child is the sudden realization that you’re going to have siblings. You’re not the center of mom and dad’s world anymore and that is a terrifying prospect. I remember being rather nervous when my parents announced that they were going to adopt a baby brother, and that trepidation was a bit overwhelming for a 7 year old boy. It’s a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and terror at the unknown. For young Tim Templeton (narrated by Tobey Maguire and voiced as a child by Miles Bakshi) his life is about to become a whole lot more complicated. For his 7.5 years of existence he has been the focus of his mom (Lisa Kudrow) and dad’s (Jimmy Kimmell) life, but now he’s getting a baby brother. A brother who takes ALLLL the time and attention that they can handle, leaving Tim feeling a bit left out.

This is amplified by the fact that Tim’s new baby brother isn’t just a normal baby. He’s actually a higher up baby from babycorp (the little corporation in the sky where babies come from) and is middle manager up there. You see, with a special formula the supervisors of babycorp can stay babies forever, but mentally mature like an adult, which is where our little boss baby comes in. He’s been sent to earth to fix a problem for babycorp. It seems that puppies have slowly been stealing the love from babies in ever widening proportions, and Tim’s parents happen to work for a Canine company who is about to unveil a brand new puppy to the world. A puppy that very well could tip the balance of love to where puppies will reign supreme in people’s hearts rather than children. Tim and Bossy baby decide to put aside their differences over mom and dad for one reason only. So that bossy baby (voiced by Alec Baldwin) can stop the launch of this new “super puppy” and get back up to babycorp where he is in line for a promotion, and leave mom and dad all to Tim.

Boss Baby can be seen as a fantasy in some ways, but also seen as an allegory as to how a child looks at the new interloper in the house. Is boss baby an ACTUAL boss baby from babycorp? Or is he Tim’s projection of how the new child is taking away all of the attention he used to get. Forcing him to create a little imagination world of conflict between himself and the new little one. It can be taken either way, but it’s really just a fun little romp for the kids. There’s very little depth to the film besides your classic adventure with boss baby and Tim going on their mission to stop the super puppy from being releases, as well as coming to actually love each other as family. Beyond that the movie is rather superficial and almost insultingly simple (to us adults).

The best parts of the movie actually come from the side characters and the winks and nods that they make to other movies. The Gandalf sounding wizard clock gave The Lord of the Rings nerd in me quite the chuckle, and the chase between the Eugene nanny and the babies actually popped in more than a few Mary Poppins references that had me laughing pretty hard. Maguire is actually really good as the narrator, and Bakshi gives a very emotional performance as Tim. Baldwin really is just playing himself here, and while that’s a lot of fun at times, he really doesn’t stretch himself with the performance.




Rating:

Rated PG for some mild rude humor




Video:

The 4K UHD transfer for the movie looks really REALLY nice, but here in lies the rub. It doesn't really look any better than the already stunning 2D Blu-ray. There's some small uptick in colors and a teensy bit in overall detail, but unless you are A/Bing the discs back to back then it's REALLY hard to tell any major differences. the colors are already beautiful so the HDR doesn't do a whole lot, and the discs were already artifact free so it's hard to get any better. There's a sense of mild softness when comparing to some of the truly demo worthy HDR UHD discs and overall I have to say that I don't see much difference between the 1080p and 4K disc. That's not to say that it looks bad in any way, but that it just doesn't improve on the Blu-ray much at all





Audio:

On the other hand, the Dolby Atmos track is a definite upgrade from the 7.1 DTS-HD MA track. I noticed right off the bat that the mix sounds a bit fuller (ok, a good bit fuller) and that the bass is much more impressive. I felt that while the LFE was nice and solid for the Blu-ray, it was just a bit flat and the Atmos track kicks that up a good notch and a half. Dialog is crystal clear, and the whole sound stage feels more immersive with the extra overheads for the chase scenes. Basically take the solid audio mix from the Blu-ray, add in some great dynamics and more oomph, and this is what you get. Definitely worth the price of admission.









Extras:

• Mini Adventure: The Boss Baby and Tim's Treasure Hunt Through Time – Narrated by Wizzie, the magical wizard, join Boss Baby and Tim on their adventure!
The Forever Puppy Infomercial – Always playful, always snuggly, and everlastingly cute; The Forever Puppy is destined to win the cuteness competition with babies once and for all.
• BabyCorp and You – Helpful advice and more for new infants on the job at BabyCorp.
• Babies vs. Puppies: Who Do YOU Love? – Who has won the hearts of familes once and for all? This "scientific" experiment compares and contrasts factors such as "cuddliness," "adorability," and "attention grabbing techniques" used by both demanding competitors.
• The Boss Baby's Undercover Team – From Staci, the note taker who can't read, to Jimbo the huge baby who'll take a suction cup arrow for the Boss, to the triple-threat of the Triplets, Boss Baby dives deeper into this team of cute corporate board members.
• Cookies are for Closers: Inside BabyCorp – Go behind the scenes with Director Tom McGrath as he introduces us to BabyCorp, a secret organization of infants united for a common goal in THE BOSS BABY.
• The Great Sibling Competition – A fun, kid-friendly and humorous look at the competition among siblings to win the affection of their parents. Explore conversations with the cast and crew on their competitive sibling relationships and get very special insights from Boss Baby himself: Alec Baldwin.

Final Score: ​

The Boss Baby is NOT a bad movie as I mentioned in my opening remarks. In another generation it would have been seen as a perfectly satisfactory animated kids film, but we’ve really been spoiled the last 20 years (ish) with Pixar, Disney’s resurgence, and Dreamworks pumping out some incredible animated films that push the boundaries that we grew up with. The Boss Baby is nothing more than an agreeably entertaining film that does its job and makes you laugh a good bit. The animation is top notch, the story is simple and cute, but it doesn’t rank up their with the best of Dreamworks, Pixar and the rest. If you're going to choose between the 4K disc and the Blu-ray, I normally would say 'take your pick' due to the lack of upgrade in the video department (or I should say appreciable upgrade, as there is a little bit of an upgrade video wise), but the Atmos track definitely makes it easier to push the 4K disc, as it was a definite upgrade if you have the audio equipment.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Alec Baldwin, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmell
Directed by: Tom McGrath
Written by: Michael McCullers, Marla Frazee
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese DD 5.1, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Catalan, Dutch, German, Italian, Flemish DTS 5.1
Studio: Dreamworks Pictures
Rated: PG
Runtime: 98 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2017

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental for the Kids

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. My kids wanted to watch this at the theater but I had my reservations.. In the end, we didn't catch it in the theater but will check it out as a rental.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Argh... only 3 stars. Time is limited and I just can't commit to it. I saw the trailer for this in the theaters and thought it looked promising....

 

[Michael Scott]

It's cute but nothing special