SEVEN-year-old Tim is a much-loved only child whose parents both work for Puppycorp, which is devoted to putting a puppy in every family. Great idea although, like marriage, owning an animal is a responsibility not to be entered into lightly!
Mother and Father decide that Tim should have a sibling. They don’t ask him whether he likes that idea. Nor should they feel obliged to.
In due course, the shipping department at Babycorp randomly chooses a baby for delivery directly to company management en route to a family. The film tells the story of Tim’s adjustment to this competition and Baby Boss’s adjustment from the role inflicted on him to infancy’s realities. It’s marshmallow stuff that would be okay but for one unforgiveable contradiction.
The fons et origo of this animation directed by Tom McGrath (most known, with some justification, for those penguins of Madagascar) is a novel by Marla Frazee whose moving-image career appears to be confined to a TV series “Designing Your Future” made in 2007 for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
“The Boss Baby” is about children but that doesn’t mean it is suitable for them. No, it’s not about baby-making high jinks. When children ask, “Mummy, Daddy, where did I come from?” parents’ answers are a matter for family judgement. As is right and proper.
Making a film giving incorrect information to adults about those matters is bad enough. Giving it to children is unforgiveable. The classifiers have got this one wrong. It should be PG at least.
At all cinemas
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