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Film review: Boss Baby - what happens when you turn a baby into a corporate boss?
Tue, 28th Mar 2017
FYI, this story is more than a year old

With April school holidays fast approaching, your little ones will be clambering for something to do and movie season is coming to solve your problems - at least for a couple of hours.

Boss Baby is here to provide a cute and lighthearted look at what happens when you transform a baby into senior management.

Yes, it's a crazy concept but it was executed with only the style, office culture and the wide-eyed innocence that animation could come up with.

Based on the book of the same name, Boss Baby was produced by 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks. At the helm is director Tom McGrath, famous for the Madagascar films.

It's just over an hour and a half long which could be a stretch for some of your wiggly young ones but if they can make it through they'll let out many a giggle. There are also sly references that adults might enjoy, such as Mouse Trap, Toy Story, Shrek and Lord of the Rings.

Not to mention the strangely ludicrous spectacle of seeing a baby engage in those corporate affairs many of us deal with in day to day life. “Someone's crying? Where's HR when you need them?

Boss Baby, voiced by Alec Baldwin, is a tiny little tot that landed a different path in life than his blubbering baby brethren. Forced into a life of senior management and desk jobs at BabyCorp, he has one mission.

He is put on earth with one family that includes Tim Templeton (voiced by Miles Bakshi), a seven year old who is used to being the only child in the family.

A common story in many families, Tim doesn't take too kindly to a new arrival on the scene. The new baby doesn't think too highly of Tim either.

 Not only is Tim battling for his parents' love, but he suspects there's something fishy about this baby who's conveniently dressed in a suit.

“He carries a briefcase! Does no one else think that's - oh, I don't know - a little freaky?

What Boss Baby's mission? Without giving too much away, this film could put another perspective on that eternal debate: Whether fur babies or human babies can win the ultimate showdown.

Narrated by Tobey Maguire and also featuring the voices of Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Conrad Vernon, ViviAnn Yee and Eric Bell Jr, this film has a solid story and great animation that carries it through.

There's also something very unsettling by the factory-like production of babies and the manufactured production of immortal puppies but it's not something the kids will notice.

Being an adult kinda spoils things sometimes but overall this film is happy, it's sad, it's charming and it's comedic; a good mix for parents and kidlings alike.

Maybe, just maybe it could persuade your little ones to embrace their new little brother or sister if you're expecting. Or maybe they'll love cute puppies even more.

Boss Baby is in cinemas from April 13.