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She Means Business! DreamWorks Animation’s Boss Baby sequel introduces us to a new charming executive infant!
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here’s a new Boss Baby in town. She’s clever, cute, fearless and voiced by Amy Sedaris. That’s pretty much all you need to know about DreamWorks’ sequel to its 2017 blockbuster hit, which was nominated for an Oscar and went on to gross over $527.9 million worldwide. The follow-up to that movie, which also inspired the Netflix series The Boss Baby: Back in Business, made its theatrical and streaming premiere July 2, giving audiences the chance to revisit some of their favorite characters and meet some eccentric new ones. The Boss Baby: Family Business is directed by DreamWorks veteran Tom McGrath, who also helmed the first Boss Baby outing as well as three Madagascar movies and Megamind, and penned by the original’s writer Michael McGrath (Hotel Transylvania 3). The sequel catches up with the Templeton family 25 years after the events of the first movie. Tim (voiced by James Marsden) is now all grown up and married with two daughters of his own, Tabitha and Tina. When Dr. Armstrong, the enigmatic principal of his daughter’s advanced preschool, causes a crisis in Baby Corp, both Tim and his brother Ted rely on the magic formula to become kids again and save the world from the principal’s evil plan. Along the way, Tim discovers new ways to understand and bond with older daughter Tabitha, and Tina surprises them both by revealing that she is the new female Boss Baby!
‘Even though these movies are broad comedies, and you’re always trying to make them funnier, the heart is the brothers’ story and the Tim-Tabitha father-daughter relationship. That is always in the back of your mind.’ — Director Tom McGrath
McGrath recalls when he got the call from DreamWorks’ then-president Chris DeFaria in the summer of 2018, telling him they were going ahead with the sequel and asking whether they could attach his name as director. “At that point, I had done five movies back to back and was thinking about taking some time off,” he recalls. “Boss Baby had been my pet project after the Madagascar movies, and originally I had just wanted to tell a story about two brothers. But then, I started to think about what we could do in a second movie. I thought, well, we ended the original movie with [Tim and Ted] as adults, so we could pick up the story where it left off.”
Family Ties The film’s producer, Jeffrey Herman (Kung Fu Panda 3, To: Gerard), points out that one of the big joys of the movie is exploring the grown-up Tim’s relationship with his daughters. “One of the project’s happy surprises was how it broadened out from a brothers story to an ensemble piece, particularly thanks to our amazing voice talent,” he says. “One of
the sequel’s most powerful elements is Tim and Tabitha’s relationship, which evolves as the result of them spending time together when Tim becomes a little boy again. This father-and-daughter story brings an additional level of sweetness and sincerity to the overall mix.” “In addition to Alec Baldwin, who is back reprising his memorable role of Boss Baby, we were so fortunate to have terrific stars such as Amy Sedaris (Tim’s youngest daughter Tina a.k.a. the new Boss Baby) and Jeff Goldblum (Principal Armstrong),” Herman adds. “Each one of them is such a wonderful ad-libber, and they brought so much to their roles. They shine every time they are on the screen. Our animators really stepped up their game, too, and were very excited to match the intensity and zaniness of the vocal performances.”
A CG Valentine to 2D Classics One of the key visual touchstones of the first Boss Baby outing was how it paid homage to some of the wonderful classics of the Golden Age with eye-popping visuals that were reminiscent of the
www.animationmagazine.net 22 august 21
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