The children's animated sequel is often seen as the pinnacle of the studio cash grab. There are few that actually succeed in their efforts to further the world-building and compel audiences, more recently stinking of studios saying "well, the first one made money, so let's just do it again." 'The Secret Life of Pets 2', 'The Angry Birds Movie 2', 'Hotel Transylvania 2', 'The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature', 'Ice Age' and its four sequels - oh, and a fifth one next year. Sequels are inevitable, but even just the small sampling above highlights some of the many "cash grab" sequels. Now, the latest one is set to hit cinemas.
'The Boss Baby: Family Business' follows Ted (Alec Baldwin, 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout', 'Still Alice') and Tim Templeton (James Marsden, 'Sonic the Hedgehog', the 'X-Men' franchise, replacing Tobey Maguire from the first film) have grown up and apart. Ted is a bigshot CEO, while Tim is now a stay-at-home dad to two young girls. The youngest baby, Tina (Amy Sedaris, 'The Lion King' (2019), 'Chef'), has followed in her uncle's footsteps and joined the Boss Baby business. But a crisis is happening a BabyCorp as Dr Erwin Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum, 'Thor: Ragnarok', 'Isle of Dogs'), who has a few secrets of his own, is taking over. Tina has a special formula that turns Ted back to his Boss Baby self and Tim back to a 7-year-old. They have 48 hours to save BabyCorp as well as learn to see eye to eye again. Tim's other daughter Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt, 'In The Heights', 'Love and Monsters'), is also struggling to fit in at school.
SWITCH: 'THE BOSS BABY: FAMILY BUSINESS' TRAILER D
'The Boss Baby' was forgettably bad nothingness. It was fun to make fun of the premise, but for those who watched the film, it was fluff - it's simple children's media that doesn't challenge young minds just proves the most basic of laughs, and is sure to hold their attention for its 90-minute run time. The second entry is more of the same mindless fluff that will hold children's attention, but there are so many better films you could show them instead. As a whole, 'Family Business' is extremely padded, with extended sequences taking place at Tabitha's school where we are just watching classes take place with no plot, and no humour - just characters attending school. You often forget that the main plot is meant to be saving BabyCorp because we spend so little time there, focusing heavily on this school environment. It has very little humour around the concept Ted and Tim have de-aged; it feels like they forgot they ever grew up with the characters acting similar to the way they did in the first film. Even the new characters - mainly the new Boss Baby and villain - are very forgettable and missing from large chunks of the film.
It's more of the same mindless fluff that will hold children's attention, but there are so many better films you could show them instead.
The animation is also quite cheap and stands as one of the lowest-quality DreamWorks films. You could hate-watch this film, but honestly, it's just a waste of time.
'The Boss Baby: Family Business' checks all the cash grab sequel boxes; it's somehow bonkers and bland at the same time. Unless you have a child who is the world's biggest 'Boss Baby' fan, there is no reason to check out this entry.