DreamWorks' Boss Baby

[Ben]

As per the front page's link to Coming Soon...

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=123549

...is anyone else having a *major* WTF!? moment over DWA's newly confirmed feature Boss Baby?

Okay, so it's based on a book, and in a way the basic plot feels like it could have been a fun short from the UPA days, but as a big studio release in 2016? I like director Tom McGrath - and it's good to see DWA get behind an "original" concept again - but, really, this is filled with so many bizarre elements that I just can't help but think *this* is what they think is going to put them back in the game?

And, though this is a minor thing...is it just me or does losing the The off the front of the title kind of make this want to be called Baby Boss instead? Definitely works better, and with better connotations...

[EricJ]

Okay, so it's based on a book, and in a way the basic plot feels like it could have been a fun short from the UPA days, but as a big studio release in 2016?

Yeah, sort of like the way Shrek, Ant Bully, Polar Express and Night at the Museum were "based on children's picture books".

The original picture book had a very straightforward kids' concept: The older brother thinks that the baby is now the "boss" of the house, and depicts him as a corporate boss in his imagination. The movie turns him into Stewie Griffin, and pastes on their old Megamind plot.
That's because Hollywood can't read, you see, and are afraid of books, even 24-pp. children's ones.

But it's Dreamworks, so it's all basically deathwatch-trivia at this point, while we guess which one's going to be the "last" one, like Mars Needs Moms for Zemeckis.

[LotsoA113]

I've always admired how PIXAR makes each of their releases feel like events, like this is a "must see" experience. Walt Disney Animation Studios has done a similar tactic in recent years. Recently though, it's been weird to see DreamWorks Animation to spend its $135 million efforts on the likes of Turbo, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and now Boss Baby. Really bizzare.

[ShyViolet]

Hmmm....doesn't sound too thrilling, but then again Kevin Spacey's in it! I'm sold! Maybe this will be like Horrible Bosses: the animated movie! (Without the raunchiness of course.)

[Ben]

And so...what's the point?

I'm sorry but if this was even on the table at Disney or Pixar (sans redundant capitals) it's the kind of thing Lasseter would ask "why are we making this again?"...

[ShyViolet]

I admit the idea is pretty dumb. I think it's just because I loved Glengarry Glen Ross lol.

But it does kind of sound like a cross between Peabody (parent child love) and Monsters vs. Aliens (villain wants to take over the world).

Sigh. I admit the plot makes me "shrug" too.

[Dacey]

I'm sorry but if this was even on the table at Disney or Pixar (sans redundant capitals) it's the kind of thing Lasseter would ask "why are we making this again?"...

Well, to be fair, he said the same thing about Gnomeo and Juliet, apparently...and that ended up being Disney's best animated movie from a year in which they released four of them!

[Ben]

That was the reference point, yeah.

[Randall]

I'm sorry but if this was even on the table at Disney or Pixar (sans redundant capitals) it's the kind of thing Lasseter would ask "why are we making this again?"...

Well, to be fair, he said the same thing about Gnomeo and Juliet, apparently...and that ended up being Disney's best animated movie from a year in which they released four of them!

Ugh. I agreed with him on Gnomeo.

[EricJ]

Ugh. I agreed with him on Gnomeo.

I'm also assuming Ben meant Lasseter's famous quote as a compliment--
The Stainton era basically copied Dreamworks' formula more than they intended to: "Who cares if it's a GOOD idea, as long we can get it into production!"

And basically, DWA's history has been trying to figure out what the other studios do right, trying to copy it, and failing:
Their whole 90's ink-and-paint era was trying to follow Katzenberg's "own" Lion King long after animated melodramas had had it, Antz was a very, very badly half-misread take on Bug's Life, Megamind wanted to be Incredibles only without the cool, Turbo was their attempt to try and find the Pixar "Impossible dreamer" story formula, but forgot to give us a reason why we should remotely care about the main character...And with evil Boss Babies taking over the world, looks like they've set their sites on Despicable Gru.
Guess that's what happens when you don't really know why you make your movies. As Lasseter took the trouble of asking.

[James]

Is there anything on the DW slate not based on another recent property?

[Ben]

Not really, no.

(And Antz was actually a great little movie!)

[ShyViolet]

Totally agree, great characters (and like in POE the celebrity voices actually fit) and very clever. Go Ben!

Also, it wasn't that animators' ideas were bad in the Stainton era, (at least in my opinion) but the way they were mutated by execs. Case in point: Rapunzel as a Shrek-like fairy tale, which was of course ameliorated when Lassetter came along.

[James]

I actually meant future slate... sorry! Seems they're really leaning on borrowed modern concepts. The modern bit is obviously just their thing -- differentiating themselves from the Mouse. The borrowed bit is probably because I would think original concepts take longer to do and they've been going at a fairly breakneck pace for awhile.

[ShyViolet]

First footage of Boss Baby screened:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/d ... age-903569