Boss Baby, The – Family Business

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Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (high level of visual and auditory stimulation, mild peril, scary themes and scenes, violence)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Boss Baby, The – Family Business
  • a review of Boss Baby, The – Family Business completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 25 November 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to length, complexity and pace of movie, level of visual and auditory stimulation, mild peril, scary themes and scenes, and mild comedy/cartoon violence.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due to mild peril, scary themes and scenes, and mild comedy/cartoon violence.
Children over the age of 7 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Boss Baby, The – Family Business
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and coarse language
Length: 97 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Many years after 7 year-old Tim discovered that his baby brother, Ted, was a special agent for secret organisation Baby Corp., the Templeton brothers have grown up but also grown apart. Ted (Alec Baldwin) is now a successful and extremely busy CEO, while Tim (James Marsden) is a married, stay-at-home Dad. Tim is worried about his 8 year-old daughter, Tabitha (Ariana Greenblatt), who he has lately been struggling to connect with and who he thinks is so ambitious about excelling at school that she forgets to be a child. As if this wasn’t enough, one night Tim discovers that his baby, Tina (Amy Sedaris), is in fact a ‘Boss Baby’ working for Baby Corp.! Tina has the assignment to get intel about Dr Armstrong (Jeff Goldblum) – the founder of a global network of schools – because they suspect that he has evil plans. And who could be better suited to join the mission than the former dream team, Tim and Ted? Thanks to a magic formula, Tim and Ted are transformed back to their young selves which allows them to infiltrate Dr Armstrong’s school, which also happens to be the school Tabitha has just started attending. Will Tina, Tim and Ted get behind Dr Armstrong’s sinister plans; will Tim and Ted be able to rekindle their brotherly bond; and will Tabitha allow herself to take her time growing up?

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Animated; Comedy action adventure; Secret agents; Siblings and Family.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Frequent action/comedy violence, including people getting grabbed, hit, pushed, chased, and having things thrown or shot at them.
  • Children who misbehave in class are locked in “the box” for a time-out. It is set up like a seaside relaxation spa, but it is presented as being really terrifying, and a child who stumbles out of it appears completely disoriented and like they’re on drugs.
  • Dr Armstrong locks Tim and Ted up in “the box” and it is filling up with water – the implied intention is to kill them, and they say their goodbyes expecting to not get out alive.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The villain has a sinister plan of getting rid of parents – by using a phone app to brainwash all parents into zombie-like followers of his instructions. And indeed, he manages to hypnotise/brainwash all the parents at Tabitha’s school concert.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Mentos.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • A few glimpses of a baby’s bare bottom.
  • Tim and Ted are in the nude but improvise to cover up.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • No substances noted, however, there are indications of the dangers of screen/phone addiction.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Suck it up
  • You suck
  • Diaper sniffers
  • What the frittata
  • What the heck
  • Butt.

In a nutshell

The Boss Baby – Family Business is the sequel to 2017’s The Boss Baby, inspired by Marla Frazee's children’s books. Apart from providing entertainment, this movie includes positive messages and role models. The movie points out the importance of families sticking together; of parents making an effort to bond with their children; and that having boundaries is just as important as having freedom. The movie’s level of stimulation, scary themes, peril, and mild violence make it unsuitable for children under 5 and warrants parental guidance for children under 8.

The main messages from this movie are that there is nothing like the family bond; and that childhood is a precious time.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Family cohesion
  • Teamwork
  • Courage
  • Resourcefulness
  • Work-life balance
  • Spending quality time.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of openness and tolerance toward modern family models, including stay-at-home dads, and women as sole bread winners.