49 Fun Facts About The Boss Baby

Who voices the Boss Baby?

Alec Baldwin brings an in-joke with him: the baby barks that 'cookies are for closers', a riff on the ruthless sales speech he delivers in Glengarry Glen Ross.

The Boss Baby's director had earlier made which animated film series?

Madagascar, all three films. Tom McGrath says The Boss Baby was the personal one: he grew up with a brother two years older and was, in his words, 'the boss baby of the family'.

Which studio produced The Boss Baby?

DreamWorks Animation made the film and 20th Century Fox released it. By the time the sequel was ready, Universal's parent company had bought the studio, so Universal released that one itself.

The Boss Baby's plot centers on a war for adults' love between babies and what?

Puppies are winning a growing share of the world's love, which is why the baby is sent in undercover. He picks the Templetons because both parents work for the company behind the dogs, Puppy Co.

How does the Boss Baby first arrive at the Templeton house?

By taxi: a suit-wearing infant with a briefcase struts up the path with a funk swagger. His new parents see only an adorable newborn, and Tim is the one person who finds any of it strange.

What does Tim make to prove the baby can talk?

A tape: seven-year-old Tim records a secret meeting the baby holds with the neighborhood infants, disguised as a play date. They chase him down, the tape is destroyed, and it is Tim who ends up grounded.

Director Tom McGrath gives himself a cameo in The Boss Baby as the voice of which TV chef?

Julia Child, or the film's cartoon of her, is on a television in the Templeton house giving a lesson: the secret to deep-fried butter, she announces, is 'a healthy dab of margarine'.

What do Tim and Baby use to see Baby Corp headquarters?

A special pacifier: when the two suck on one together they tour the company as invisible visitors, unseen and unheard by the staff. The same trick brings them back in the sequel.

How does Baby Corp decide which babies go to management rather than families?

They do not respond to tickling. The Boss himself was one of them: the sorting machine got no giggle out of him, so he was sent to a desk instead of a family.

What does the Boss drink to keep his adult mind?

A secret formula, a special baby milk, keeps his adult mind and stops him ageing. When the villain steals his supply, the Boss starts lapsing into fits of ordinary gurgling babyhood.

What promotion is the Boss promised if his mission succeeds?

Chief executive is the prize, complete with a corner office and a private potty. He wins the job, finds that he misses Tim, and gives it all up to come back as an ordinary baby brother.

Who voices the villain Francis E. Francis?

Steve Buscemi plays a villain with a grudge. Francis was once the boss every baby at the company looked up to, and he set up his rival business to get even after it threw him out.

Francis E. Francis was fired from Baby Corp for aging due to what?

Lactose intolerance: his body could no longer take what keeps the company's bosses young, so he began to grow up and was thrown out. He had been the Boss Baby's idol, Super Colossal Big Fat Boss Baby.

On which occasion do Tim and the Boss Baby get inside the villain's company headquarters?

Take Your Kids to Work Day gets them through the door. To earn the trip, the two rivals first have to pretend they adore each other until their parents lift Tim's grounding.

Where does Francis plan to launch his rocket?

Las Vegas is where Francis has lured Tim's parents under cover of a conference. The boys catch up with him by slipping aboard a plane full of Elvis impersonators.

Francis's older brother Eugene poses as what to watch the boys?

A female nanny is the silent Eugene's disguise. He speaks properly only once, at the very end, when he carries off his brother, now a baby again, and promises to raise him right this time.

What do Tim and the Boss Baby use to get away from the villain's henchman Eugene?

Fake vomit: Tim's plan is to make Eugene think the baby is sick. In the confusion the boys bolt for the airport on Tim's bike while the neighborhood babies run interference.

Who voices Tim's father, Ted Templeton Sr.?

Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night host, voices the dad. A year later he was on stage hosting the Academy Awards on the night his own film was among the nominees.

Who voices Tim's mother, Janice Templeton?

Lisa Kudrow voices Janice, who cheerfully fails to notice that her newborn wears a suit and carries a briefcase. She came back for the sequel, by which time Janice is a grandmother.

Who narrates The Boss Baby as the adult Tim?

Tobey Maguire was a late change of plan. Four months before his casting was revealed, the studio had announced that comedian Patton Oswalt would narrate the film as the grown-up Tim.

Young Tim's voice actor is the grandson of which animation director?

Ralph Bakshi, the maverick behind Fritz the Cat, is Miles Bakshi's grandfather. Miles grew up around the studio and was only asked to record a temporary voice track; three years passed before he heard the part was his.

What made playing young Tim harder as production went on?

His voice broke: he was 10 when recording began and 14 by the time the film came out. To go on sounding like a seven-year-old, he said, he had to make his voice 'very soft'.

What is the Boss Baby's real name once he becomes a regular baby?

Theodore Lindsey Templeton, Ted for short like his father, starts over as an ordinary baby. It does not last: by the sequel the grown-up Ted is a wealthy businessman who is always away.

What is the name of Tim's Gandalf-esque alarm clock?

Wizzie, a talking wizard clock, is voiced by James McGrath. He outlasts Tim's boyhood: the clock turns up again in the sequel, by which time Tim is a father of two.

At the end of The Boss Baby, what does Tim send to win his brother back?

A letter: if there is not enough love for the two of them, Tim writes, his brother can have all of his. The Boss reads it, leaves his new office behind and comes home to be an ordinary baby.

Which Beatles song is woven into the plot of The Boss Baby?

Blackbird is the Templetons' family lullaby. At the climax Tim sings it to the baby, who has lapsed into ordinary infancy aboard the rocket, and the song coaxes him to jump clear in time.

Who scored The Boss Baby alongside Steve Mazzaro?

Hans Zimmer, by then on his 12th score for the studio, shared this one with Steve Mazzaro. The partnership stuck: the two came back together to score the sequel.

The Boss Baby's director showed every new hire the opening of which Disney classic to set the film's look?

Lady and the Tramp opens on a snowy town and a window lit by a Christmas tree, the one bright colour on screen. McGrath wanted that restraint, feeling that modern animation had grown too cluttered and realistic.

Which actor was originally announced for the villain role in 2014 before being replaced?

The recasting was announced in June 2016.

Which animated film took over The Boss Baby's original March 2016 release date?

Kung Fu Panda 3 was moved out of late 2015 so it would not open against Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and it took the baby's slot. The Boss Baby was bumped a full year, to March 2017.

In The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel, what does the villain Erwin Armstrong plan to do on 'B-Day'?

Get rid of every parent, so that no child is ever told what to do again. Armstrong, a runaway baby genius hiding inside a robot suit, means to turn the grown-ups into obedient zombies.

The Boss Baby's $528 million gross beat which Pixar sequel?

Cars 3 took about $384 million the same year, well short of the baby. The Boss Baby had cost $125 million and earned more than four times that, and a sequel was announced within two months of its release.

The Boss Baby's debut knocked which Disney remake off number one?

Beauty and the Beast had led for two weekends when the baby's $50 million debut pushed it into second place. The Boss Baby then beat it again the following weekend.

The Boss Baby was nominated for which Academy Award?

Best Animated Feature: the Academy shortlisted it even though critics had been lukewarm, with a Metacritic score of 50. On the night it lost to Pixar's Coco.

Rotten Tomatoes' consensus says The Boss Baby settles for what?

Doody jokes: the site faults 'a disappointing willingness to settle for' them, after granting the film a talented cast, glimmers of wit and flashes of visual inventiveness.

Which live-action remake of a Japanese anime opened against The Boss Baby and earned barely a third as much?

Ghost in the Shell opened the same day and took about $18.7 million to the baby's $50 million. The cartoon about a talking infant won the weekend, and the big science-fiction release finished third.

One review said The Boss Baby shares its premise with which 2016 animated film?

Storks, the San Francisco Chronicle's critic wrote, works off the same premise: that humans do not bear live young. He judged it 'equally disorganized yet superior' to The Boss Baby.

A 2021 announcement of what Boss Baby event was widely assumed to be a prank?

A philosophical symposium, and it was real. Its organizers argued that the film is 'so in conflict with itself' that it demands analysis, and a 'Second First Annual' meeting followed in 2023.

What is the title of The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

The Boss Baby: Family Business, sold in some countries simply as The Boss Baby 2. The title fits: the mission turns out to be about getting two estranged brothers working together again.

Who voices adult Tim in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

James Marsden took over as the grown-up Tim and, unlike his predecessor, also voices Tim as a boy once the brothers have been turned back into children.

Who voices the sequel's villain, Dr. Erwin Armstrong?

Jeff Goldblum voices a smooth, grown-up villain who turns out to be a baby himself. Armstrong ran away from parents he had outsmarted and works a robot suit paid for by his hit phone apps.

Who voices baby Tina in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Amy Sedaris voices Tina, the family's new undercover agent. She sets the plot going from her crib, leaving a fake voicemail that lures her long-absent uncle back to the house.

Who voices Tim's wife Carol in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Eva Longoria voices Carol, whose husband, the boy with the big imagination, has grown up to be a stay-at-home dad. It is his baby brother who became the high-flying businessman for real.

Why do the brothers become children again in The Boss Baby's sequel?

To infiltrate Tabitha's school, the Acorn Center for Advanced Childhood, and find out what its founder is up to. For 48 hours Tim is a classmate of his own daughter, and his brother is one of the babies.

In The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel, what is the name of Armstrong's hypnotic app?

QT-Snap is due to go live worldwide on the night of a holiday pageant. Tim's two daughters stop it by burying the servers under a candy volcano of Mentos and soda.

The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel opened in theaters and on which streaming service?

Peacock streamed it from the day it reached cinemas, the first time a Universal Pictures film had opened that way. The release had been set for September and was brought forward to July 2.

Which film kept The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel off the top spot on its opening weekend?

F9, the latest Fast & Furious film, was in its second weekend and still took about $23 million, more than the sequel's debut. Four years earlier the first film had opened at number one with $50 million.

The spin-off series The Boss Baby: Back in Business premiered in 2018 on which streaming service?

Netflix ordered the series within months of the film's release and ran it for four seasons. The title role passed to a new voice, JP Karliak, in place of the film's star.

Season one of The Boss Baby: Back in Business pits Baby Corp against a villain who controls which animals?

Kittens obey Bootsy Calico, a former vet who bonded with them after a troubled past. Having seen off one set of pets in the film, the babies spend their first season at war with another.