The Boss Baby 2: Family Business – Film Review
by Fran Winston

Directed by: Tom McGrath
Starring the voices of Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Ariana Greenblatt, Jeff Goldblum, Eva Longoria, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow

In cinemas October 22nd

This sequel to The Boss Baby (2017) is set 30 years after the events of that movie. Alec Baldwin reprises his role as Ted Templeton the bossiest baby in town. Obviously, he is now all grown up. He is still doing the business but in the corporate boardroom rather than BabyCorp. Meanwhile, big brother Tim is now a stay-at-home dad who is starting to feel disconnected from his 8-year-old daughter Tabitha as she begins to assert her independence. When Ted comes to visit, they learn that Tim’s other daughter Tina is also a Boss Baby working for BabycCorp, they find themselves forced to work together on a secret mission. After drinking from a  magic bottle, they revert to their childhood and infiltrate Tabitha’s school to prevent the principal from carrying out a nefarious plan.

If you’ve seen the first movie then you know what to expect here. They have found a (baby) formula and they stick with it. It is noisy and in your face, and has enough bells and whistles to entertain the kids. There are a lot of attempts to recreate scenes from the first movie which fall a bit flat but it does manage to improve marginally on that films character dynamics and running jokes.

While it has underlying messages, like all children’s movies, it moves so quickly that many of them may be lost and if you aren’t familiar with the first movie not much time is spent building the world of the film so you’ll just have to strap yourself in and figure it out.

There isn’t much in the way of mature undertones for parents but this is probably silly enough to raise a grin even if it doesn’t quite strike a chord in the same way as many contemporary animations do. This is a bit of silly fun that should prove a nice, if forgettable, family outing.