The Boss Baby: Family Business

As the summer film season continues, and we see even bigger and more over-the-top films, a good deal of them are action-packed and animated flicks--the very demographic (mostly kids and teens) that gravitates toward these genres. When "The Boss Baby" was released back in 2017, it was amazingly better than I ever thought it would be--the humor was clever. So when I saw the trailer to "The Boss Baby: Family Business", I had to believe it would be as clever and it came very close.

Now adults, Tim Templeton (James Marsden) is a stay-at-home dad for two adorable daughters, while his estranged brother Ted (Alec Baldwin) is a big-shot CEO. They come together in an unexpected way when they take a magical formula that transforms them into babies for 48 hours. Joining forces with Tim's secret-agent daughter, Tina (Amy Sedaris), the new boss baby who works for Baby Corp, they must go undercover to prevent an evil genius, Dr. Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum) from turning fellow toddlers into monstrous brats. Can they achieve all this within the 48 hour time frame? 

Others to round out the cast are Ariana Greenblatt as Tabitha, Tim's older daughter, Eva Longoria as Carol, Tim's wife, Jimmy Kimmel as Ted Templeton, Tim and Ted's dad, Lisa Kudrow as Janice, Ted Sr's wife, James McGrath as Wizzie, Reyn Doi as Nathan, Molly K. Gray as Creepy girl and David Soren as Jimbo.

This was wittily directed by Tom McGrath ("Madagascar" '05, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" '08, "Megamind" '10, "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" '12, "The Boss Baby" '17) plus TV, a video and a TV short. While this filmmaker has directed a number of live action films, the animated fare is certainly where his comfort zone lies. The way he is able to make his characters simply jump off the screen is amazing. His "Madagascar" has got to be one of his best--it's a classic. It was cleverly written by Michael McCullers ("Austin Powers' Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swingers Club" (TV movie) '97, "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" '99, "Undercover Brother" '02, "Austin Powers in Goldmember" '02, "Thunderbirds" '04, "Enough About Me" (TV movie) '05, "Baby Mama" '08, "The Boss Baby" '17, "Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation" '18) plus TV, based on a story by McGrath, which is based on characters created by Marla Frazee. As with the vast majority of sequels, this film wasn't quite as fresh and taught in its script as its predecessor, but it was still uproarious. There were a couple of places in the middle that became a bit slow and subsequently bogged down, but then it quickly picked back up and finished out as exciting as I was hoping for. So much of McCullers experience was that of Austin Powers, which certainly made writing animated films easier, since the Austin Powers character is incredibly 'animated' anyway. And, of course, Dreamworks Animation, the company that produced this made this seamless in its expertise. 

Certainly if you have a family, this is a great family film with wonderful animation, humorous writing all with a great family message. But even if one is single, it is every bit as entertaining and enjoyable. If you liked "The Boss Baby", you'll love this!

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                               Rated: PG                                                 108mins.