The Boss Baby Blu-ray Review

The Boss Baby, available in a 1080p HD transfer and presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, exemplifies the visual excellence associated with modern CGI films from DreamWorks Pictures. The picture is bright and cheery, teeming with heavily saturated colors that remain consistent throughout the 98-minute runtime. From the vivid neon hues in Tim's imagination to the rich blues of Babycorp and the vibrant oranges and reds of the household, every shade shines with impressive pop and punch. Fine details are rendered with precision, revealing textures on animated facial features, clothing, and even minute elements like legos and toys. Despite occasional minor shimmering lines, the image remains exemplary, free from digital abnormalities such as jaggies, banding, or black crush.

In terms of image clarity and depth, The Boss Baby excels across various environments, whether in the household, neighborhood settings, or elaborate fantasy sequences. Black levels are deep and inky, ensuring natural-looking animated skin tones without issues of banding or aliasing. Wide shots provide a sharp and vivid depth, capturing intricate details from plant life to numerous hyper puppy dogs. This direct digital transfer from DreamWorks/Fox delivers an outstanding visual experience, making it a top-grade presentation that meets all expectations for a newly minted CGI film.

The Blu-ray release of "The Boss Baby" offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack that significantly enhances the viewing experience despite the absence of a Dolby Atmos track, available only on the 4K UHD version. The 7.1 mix notably stands out for its dynamic surround activity that accurately supports music and effects with impressive spatiality and clarity. While the track may initially seem shallow at reference volume, cranking it up a few notches ameliorates this issue, ensuring an immersive auditory experience. The instrumental clarity and definition are top-notch, authentically bringing to life the myriad real-world and imaginary settings in the film—from the bustling Puppy Co. to the vibrant house scenes. Complex sound elements are delivered with ease, adding depth and cinematic engagement to each moment.

The immersive 7.1 experience further packs a punch with loud, robust noises that provide good directionality and enrich the film's overall feel. Ambient noises like reverb and echoes in large rooms, and the laughter of babies at Babycorp are distinctly captured, adding to the narrative's authenticity. Although an Atmos mix would have offered an enhanced sense of height and depth, the 7.1 track manages to hold its own with energetic score elements and solid bass responses during heavier action sequences. The dialogue is clear and detailed, maintaining expert prioritization free from any pops, cracks, or hiss. Overall, despite minor drawbacks such as needing to adjust the volume for optimal listening, the 7.1 DTS-HD MA track significantly contributes to making "The Boss Baby" a joyfully engaging audio-visual experience.

The extras on the Blu-ray of "The Boss Baby" offer a delightful assortment of engaging and informative content, enhancing the viewing experience with a playful blend of featurettes, interviews, and short clips. Highlights include an endearing mini adventure, humorous infomercials, and behind-the-scenes insights into BabyCorp, presented in high-definition format. The disc also offers exclusive deleted scenes and a gallery of concept art, catered specifically to fans of this animated hit. Each piece provides a cozy look into the film’s creative process while retaining a child-friendly tone.

Extras included in this disc:

• Mini Adventure: The Boss Baby and Tim's Treasure Hunt Through Time: A whimsical story narrated by a magical wizard.
• The Forever Puppy Infomercial: A cutesy ad predicting puppies' dominance in cuteness.
• BabyCorp and You: Orientation video for new BabyCorp employees.
• Babies vs. Puppies: Who Do YOU Love?: A scientific comparison exploring adorability factors.
• The Boss Baby's Undercover Team: Introduction to the secondary characters.
• Cookies are for Closers: Inside BabyCorp: Behind-the-scenes look with director Tom McGrath.
• The Great Sibling Competition: Cast and crew discuss their sibling rivalries.
• Happy Accidents: The Deleted Scenes of The Boss Baby: Early stage deleted scenes introduced by creators.
• Gallery: Concept artwork.
• Theatrical Trailer: Official film trailer.
• The World of DreamWorks Animation: Music videos from other DreamWorks films.
• Sneak Peek: Previews of additional DreamWorks titles.

"The Boss Baby" delights as an animated family film filled with charm, wit, and plenty of chuckle-worthy moments, despite its occasional shortcomings. Introducing an imaginative storyline that follows young Tim Templeton, voiced by Miles Bakshi and narrated by Tobey Maguire, the film focuses on Tim's initial shock and eventual bonding with his unusually business-savvy new baby brother, voiced by Alec Baldwin. The narrative cleverly balances a fanciful adventure with elements of sibling rivalry and imaginative childlike coping mechanisms. It presents viewers with a playful speculation on whether Boss Baby's character is a literal figure or merely Tim's vivid projection of his anxieties about sibling displacement.

Visually inventive, "The Boss Baby" showcases impressive animation, complete with vibrant colors and engaging action sequences. It creatively merges fantastical elements, such as a baby factory and baby-run corporations, with real-world scenarios, resulting in a comical yet heartwarming adventure. The film excels in sprinkling humorous nods to classic movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Mary Poppins," providing plenty of inside jokes for adults amidst the child-friendly antics. The standout performances by the voice cast, particularly Baldwin's sharp-tongued delivery, ensure that both children and adults remain hooked throughout the film.

However, while "The Boss Baby" delivers high entertainment value and a fair share of laughs through its secondary humor and side characters, the plot can feel somewhat flat and predictable, especially in the third act. The story's insightful yet simplistic approach to themes of family and loyalty is punctuated with fart jokes and slapstick humor, which occasionally clashes with the movie's more sophisticated attempts to engage older audiences. Despite these minor flaws, the combination of heartwarming messages, dynamic visuals, and clever humor secures its place as enjoyable family viewing.

"The Boss Baby" is an animated film that strikes the right balance between humor and heart. The narrative centers on sibling rivalry and the bonds formed through unexpected adventures, delivered with a charming performance by Alec Baldwin. The animation is of top-notch quality, with vibrant visuals that consistently impress throughout the film. While the movie's plot might meander somewhat in its latter half, it remains an entertaining experience that can easily engage younger audiences. Supporting voices from Lisa Kudrow, Steve Buscemi, and Jimmy Kimmel add further depth to the enjoyable character portrayals.

Technically, the Blu-ray release of "The Boss Baby" stands out. The visual presentation in a 2.39:1 AVC aspect ratio is superb, bringing the colorful world to life with great clarity and detail. The audio tracks are diverse, featuring an English DTS-HD MA 7.1 mix alongside several other language options in 5.1. However, the 7.1 mix may require some volume adjustment to fully appreciate its spectrum. The added extras tailored for a younger audience enhance the value of this Blu-ray set, which includes a standard DVD and a digital copy for viewing flexibility.

In conclusion, "The Boss Baby" is NOT a bad movie as I mentioned in my opening remarks. In another generation, it would have been seen as a perfectly satisfactory animated kids film, but we’ve really been spoiled over the last 20 years (ish) with Pixar, Disney’s resurgence, and DreamWorks producing incredible films that push boundaries. "The Boss Baby" is nothing more than an agreeably entertaining film that does its job and makes you laugh a good bit. The animation is top-notch; the story is simple and cute but doesn’t rank up there with the best of DreamWorks, Pixar, and the rest. Audio and video will knock you off your feet, and the extras are pretty solid, but in a world that has been overrun with animated films, I’d rent this one before you buy.