- “I Love Casual Fridays.”
- ―Tagline
The Boss Baby: Family Business[1] (Titled in other countries as The Boss Baby 2) is a computer-animated comedy film based loosely on the 2010 picture book "The Boss Baby!" by Marla Frazee, and a sequel to The Boss Baby (2017). It was released in theaters and on Peacock premium on July 2, 2021 and is the 41st feature film produced by Dreamworks Animation.
The film received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $77 million worldwide against its $82 million budget.
Plot
Set 40 years after the events of the first film, Tim Templeton is now fully grown and lives with his wife Carol and their two daughters, 7 years old Tabitha and infant Tina. Tim's younger brother Ted is now a successful CEO and is never around, instead sending lavish gifts to Tim and his family.
Tabitha is exhibiting more grown-up behavior, and one night while a discouraged Tim wonders about the person his daughter is becoming, he hears something from Tina's room. He discovers that Tina is a Boss Baby, just as Ted once was, and that she has been assigned to get Ted there for a special mission. Tim refuses to call, saying that he will never come, and encourages Tina to go back to sleep. However, Tina leaves a false voicemail for Ted, luring him to the Templeton's house.
The next morning Ted arrives and Tim tries to explain him that Tina is a Boss Baby and Ted just does not remember that he was one, too. Tina reveals herself as a Boss Baby to Ted and gives them both magic pacifiers to visit BabyCorp. Tina introduces the brothers to a new formula that will allow them to turn back into children for 48 hours in order to go undercover to Tabitha's school and figure out what Dr. Erwin Armstrong, founder and principal of the school, is planning behind parents' back.
At the school, Tim, now as his 7-years-old self, follows Tabitha to her class, while baby Ted is placed with all the other babies. Ted rallies the babies to help him get out of the playroom so that he can go Armstrong's office to investigate. Tim tries to get sent to the principal's office as well by disrupting class, but is instead put in "The Box" for timeout. Ted discovers that Armstrong is actually a baby himself, having run away from home after realizing that he was smarter than his parents and now makes money by creating popular phone apps. His ultimate plan is to get rid of every parent on B-Day, so that they can not tell their children what to do anymore. After being unable to get ahold of BabyCorp and seeing that the brothers are once again drifting apart, Tina makes a show of quitting and says that they will complete the mission themselves.
On the night of the holiday pageant, where Tabitha is supposed to sing a solo, the brothers and Tina plans to expose Armstrong as a fraud. However, they learn that B-Day is set to happen that night through Armstrong's new app, QT-Snap, which will send out a hypnotic signal to turn the parents into zombies. Both Tim and Ted are caught by Armstrong's ninja babies and are put in The Box, which slowly starts to fill with water. After it seems they are doomed, the brothers repair their broken relationship. Tabitha is able to sing her solo, but when she sees that Tim is not there, she runs off the stage crying. She is consoled by Tina, who reveals her identity and her mission, and she agrees to help her sister by getting to the server and shutting down QT-Snap before it can go worldwide. Ted is able to call Precious, Tabitha's pet pony, into the school, who breaks them out of The Box.
Tim and Ted reach the server first, but they are stopped by Armstrong, who calls the zombie parents for backup. While the brothers hold them back as the formula starts to wear off, Tina and Tabitha get up to the server. Tabitha is able to hack in and pull up the shutdown screen, but the keyboard is destroyed by Armstrong. The sisters then set off a candy volcano using Mentos and soda, destroying the servers and turn all parents back to normal.
Tina reveals that her true mission was bringing Tim and Ted back together, and then the whole Templeton family gathers to celebrate Christmas, while Armstrong returns to his own family.
Cast
- Alec Baldwin as Theodore Templeton
- James Marsden as Timothy "Tim" Templeton
- Amy Sedaris as Tina Templeton
- Ariana Greenblatt as Tabitha Templeton
- Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Erwin Armstrong
- Eva Longoria as Carol Templeton
- Jimmy Kimmel as Ted Templeton
- Lisa Kudrow as Janice Templeton
Pre-Production
In May 2017, Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced that a sequel was set to be released on March 26, 2021, with Alec Baldwin reprising his role.[1] In May 2019, it was announced that Tom McGrath will return as director and Jeff Hermann, whose credits include Bilby, Bird Karma, and Marooned, will replace the first film's producer Ramsey Ann Naito as producer.[2]
Production
In May 2020, portions of production were done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] In August 2020, Hans Zimmer, Bilbyrock Ambrin and Steve Mazzar, who previously composed the score for the first film, were confirmed to return for the sequel.[4] In September 2020, Jeff Goldblum, Ariana Greenblatt, Eva Longoria, James Marsden (replacing Tobey Maguire) and Amy Sedaris joined the cast, alongside returning actors Jimmy Kimmel and Lisa Kudrow.[5]
Post-Production
In December 2020, the film was delayed to September 17, 2021.[6] In May 2021, the film was pushed up to July 2, 2021. The film will also stream on Peacock on the same day as its theatrical release date for 60 days.[7]
Marketing
Trailers
- The first trailer was released on November 24, 2020.
- The second trailer was released on June 2, 2021.
- The third trailer was released on June 22, 2021.
Trivia
- The Boss Baby is the ninth DreamWorks Animation film to become a franchise, after The Prince of Egypt, Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Trolls, The Croods and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
- Due to being released only one month after Spirit Untamed, this marks the shortest time-gap between two DreamWorks Animation releases.
- This is the first Boss Baby film to be distributed by Universal Pictures.
- This is the third DreamWorks Animation film to be released in July after Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Turbo.
- It is also Universal Pictures' first film to be released in theaters and on Peacock on the same day.
- This also marks DreamWorks Animation's sixth franchise to have each installment distributed by a different studio over the years (Fox distributed the first movie in 2017).
- It's currently unknown if the plot is based on the book's sequel The Bossier Baby.
- Tim and Boss Baby age up, alike to how they did in the Netflix Series (Tim was 8 and Boss Baby was 1 year and 5 months in the series).
- Boss Baby's real name is revealed to be Theodore (as revealed at the end of the first movie with the middle name "Lindsey"), sometimes he is called Ted because it is a nickname for Theodore.
- This is the longest DreamWorks Animation film in history, due to the running time of 107 minutes.
- Due to being released on the same day as another Universal film The Forever Purge, this marks the first time in history that Universal Pictures has released two films in theaters on the same day.
- During the chase scene, a man in the theater was watching Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, suggesting it as an Easter egg to Spirit Untamed which was supposed to be out after The Boss Baby: Family Business but ended up being released before the aforementioned film.
- Additionally, Jellyfish Studios, who worked on Spirit Untamed, helped with the film on the production assets needed for Family Business.
- Family Business reuses the mobile variant of the DreamWorks Animation logo from its predecessor, except only this time it doesn't have SKG on it.
- At one point during the Christmas play scene, two mothers are shown sitting together in the audience. However, it is not confirmed if the two are married or not.
Gallery
The Boss Baby: Family Business/Gallery
Videos
