99 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.

Besides a jacket and tie, which office accessory does the title character of The Boss Baby carry?

A briefcase completes his office look, and the newborn behaves like any other baby until the grown-ups leave the room.

In The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel, which candy do Tim's daughters drop into soda to wreck the villain's servers?

Mentos and soda give the sisters a candy volcano that floods the server room and frees the hypnotised grown-ups from their trance.

Which Pixar film beat The Boss Baby to the prize in its category at the 2018 Academy Awards?

Coco took the prize, leaving The Boss Baby among the also-rans beside Ferdinand, The Breadwinner and Loving Vincent.

In The Boss Baby, Tim and his baby brother board a plane packed with impersonators of which singer?

Elvis Presley lookalikes fill the cabin, a gag Variety's critic picked out as one of the film's irresistible bits.

Tom McGrath, director of The Boss Baby, earlier made which 2010 film about a blue-skinned alien supervillain?

Megamind stars Will Ferrell as a villain who finally beats his rival Metro Man, then has to create a new hero to fight.

What kind of animal is Precious, the pet that helps Tim and his brother escape in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

A pony, Precious was a lavish gift from the girls' rich uncle and went on to star in her own short film on the home release.

Which songwriter composed What the World Needs Now Is Love, the 1965 hit covered over The Boss Baby's end credits?

Burt Bacharach wrote the music to Hal David's words, and Missi Hale recorded a new version for the film's closing titles.

What happens to the villain Francis E. Francis after he falls from a catwalk at the climax of The Boss Baby?

He becomes an infant once more after landing in a vat, and his brother Eugene carries him off to bring him up properly this time.

Which holiday do the Templetons gather to celebrate together at the end of The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Christmas brings the whole clan under one roof, a tidy payoff for a film that opens with the Boss Baby a busy executive who never visits.

Dr. Armstrong's guards in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel are babies trained as which kind of warrior?

Ninjas in the nursery: the stealthy infants catch both brothers on pageant night and lock them in a cell that slowly fills with water.

The Boss Baby's screenwriter Michael McCullers co-wrote the second and third films of which spy-comedy series?

Austin Powers came first: McCullers worked with Mike Myers on The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember before writing for a talking infant.

In The Boss Baby, the title character disguises his first staff meeting with neighborhood infants as what?

A play date is the cover story, and when Tim tries to gather proof of the meeting, the infants chase him down and destroy it.

How do Tim's mom and dad punish him in The Boss Baby when they think he wants his new brother gone?

He is grounded and told to stay indoors with the infant until the two learn to get along, which is how the rivals end up striking a deal.

Before The Boss Baby, its lead actor voiced a Santa Claus allied with Jack Frost in which film?

Rise of the Guardians cast him as North, a Santa who rallies the Easter Bunny and the Sandman against the nightmare-spreading Pitch Black.

The Boss Baby's retro look was praised as a homage to Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng, legends of which cartoon series?

Looney Tunes was the touchstone: the director halved the usual number of controls on his digital characters so animators would commit to bold, hand-drawn-style expressions.

Who wrote If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out for Harold and Maude, a song reused in The Boss Baby's sequel?

Cat Stevens wrote it in 1971, and the sequel's director kept what was meant to be a placeholder track because the more the team listened, the better it worked.

Which studio released the first Boss Baby film in 2017, before Universal Pictures handled its sequel?

20th Century Fox handled the first film, but NBCUniversal bought the studio that made it in 2016, so the Japanese release and the sequel went out through Universal.

Before The Boss Baby, director Tom McGrath worked on which Nickelodeon cartoon about a chihuahua and a cat?

Ren & Stimpy was his training ground: McGrath storyboarded and directed on its later seasons, and says it taught him that a drawn expression alone can get a laugh.

Tom McGrath said his personal goal for The Boss Baby was to watch the finished film with which relative?

His older brother was moved to tears by it; McGrath, the younger of the two, has said he was the boss baby of their household growing up.

Which quality did The Boss Baby's director feel modern computer-made films overdid, prompting his stylised 1960s look?

Realism had gone too far for his taste, with even caricatured characters given pores and blood vessels, so he had the film's surfaces painted by hand.

During The Boss Baby's toy-vehicle chase, the title character leads his infant team after Tim in a pedal-powered what?

A police car leads the charge, with the rest of the team on a tricycle and other ride-on toys; Tim's mom and dad glance over and see only youngsters playing on the lawn.

A baby action sequence in The Boss Baby is set to the theme music of which 1970s TV crime drama?

S.W.A.T. lends its theme to the pint-sized mayhem, in keeping with a film that stages nursery squabbles as grown-up action thrillers.

Which actress, later seen as Sasha in the Barbie film, voices Tim's older daughter in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Ariana Greenblatt kept the part in the follow-up TV series, while Tim, Tina and the title character were all recast.

In The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel, what is the name of the timeout cell where a disruptive Tim is locked up?

The Box is where Tim lands when his plan to get sent to the principal's office backfires, and later it nearly drowns both brothers.

At the end of The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel, what does baby Tina reveal her true mission was all along?

Reuniting the brothers was the real assignment; exposing Dr. Armstrong was only the excuse to get the estranged pair in one room.

How does baby Tina lure her busy uncle to the Templeton house in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

A phony voicemail does the trick after Tim insists his brother will never come; the Boss Baby turns up at the door the next morning.

With his wife Carol the high achiever, what is the grown-up Tim's role in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

A stay-at-home dad with a runaway imagination, Tim is the opposite of his wealthy brother, and the gulf between them drives the plot.

Which British boy-band frontman wrote Together We Stand, the original song for The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Gary Barlow wrote it for the film's young co-star to sing, and it earned a Hollywood Music in Media Award nomination.

In The Bossier Baby, the 2016 picture-book sequel to The Boss Baby, who arrives to run the household instead?

A little sister in a onesie and pearls takes charge, demoting the original tyrant to a jealous toddler until the two make peace.

What is the subtitle of the 2022 Boss Baby series in which the grown-up hero is framed and returns to infancy?

Back in the Crib ran for two seasons, pairing the Boss Baby with his niece Tina and, in its second year, having the two launch a company of their own.

Framed for embezzlement in the 2022 Boss Baby series, the grown-up hero returns to infancy to hide from which agency?

The FBI wants him for a crime his own board committed, so he moves in with Tim's household and goes back to his old job at Baby Corp.

In the 2010 picture book behind The Boss Baby, whom does the bossy newborn order around like office staff?

His mom and dad are the workforce, kept hard at it with endless meetings and constant demands until they are too worn out to respond.

The author-illustrator of the picture book The Boss Baby has repeatedly been a runner-up for which American prize?

Caldecott Medal runner-up citations, known as Honors, have gone to several of her books, among them A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever.

Tom McGrath showed The Boss Baby's storyboard artists which Mel Brooks comedy as a model for funny background action?

Young Frankenstein was his example of gold hidden beneath the dialogue: McGrath wanted each scene to read clearly even with the sound switched off.

The producer of The Boss Baby said a six-person task force was devoted to animating which detail?

Jiggling fat got its own squad because the filmmakers wanted believable infant physics inside a flat, graphic design that left no texture to hide behind.

In The Boss Baby, the pudgy infant Jimbo on the title character's team has the body of a miniature what?

Sumo wrestler proportions are Jimbo's signature, and in one chase he rides a toy fire engine that the villain's brother cannot hold on to.

Dr. Erwin Armstrong is founder and principal of which elite institution in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

The Acorn Center for Advanced Childhood pushes its pupils to grow up too fast, which the director says was the starting idea for the story.

A surreal song sequence in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel was likened to a tipsy hallucination scene in which Disney film?

Dumbo's hallucinatory parade is echoed in a pink-and-purple sea of trumpets and floral shapes, where the de-aged Tim sings with his daughter.

A critic praised The Boss Baby's sequel for sneaking in a song from which 1975 cult musical film?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show turns up thanks to what the Los Angeles Times called a music department with an apparently unlimited budget.

The holiday pageant in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel carries doom-laden songs about which issue?

Climate change is the theme, and the director himself co-wrote the film's Global Warming Song with its composers.

Which Flo Rida hit, also a WrestleMania 32 theme song, plays in the trailer for The Boss Baby?

My House had peaked at number four in the United States in March 2016, a year before the film reached cinemas.

At which fan convention did The Boss Baby surprise a Hall H crowd with footage after the Trolls panel in 2016?

Comic-Con got the scenes as an unannounced bonus, and the film's star made his first appearance at the convention.

A June 2016 sneak preview of The Boss Baby had the crowd in stitches at which French animation festival?

Annecy got never-before-seen sequences nine months ahead of release, with Guillermo del Toro among the invited audience.

What false first name does the de-aged Tim use while posing as a new boy in The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel?

Marcos is the alias Tim hides behind, which lets him befriend his own daughter and coax her into singing again.

Which comedian, the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, was first announced as The Boss Baby's grown-up narrator?

Patton Oswalt was named in the June 2016 casting news, but another actor ended up telling the story as the adult Tim in the finished film.

Which Shrek 2 co-director, also the voice of the Gingerbread Man, plays the villain's brother Eugene in The Boss Baby?

Conrad Vernon plays the henchman left to guard the boys in disguise while Francis flies their mom and dad to his conference.

The Boss Baby's 2021 sequel opened on the same July day as which horror sequel from the same distributor?

The Forever Purge joined it in the top three that weekend, the first time since 2005 that one studio had swept the podium.

Critics likened The Boss Baby to which 1989 comedy, in which Bruce Willis voices an infant's thoughts?

Look Who's Talking was the comparison both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reached for in reviews of the talking-infant premise.

After The Boss Baby, Michael McCullers co-wrote the third film in which monster-comedy series with Genndy Tartakovsky?

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation came out in 2018, with McCullers sharing the script credit with the film's director.

The Boss Baby had its world premiere in March 2017 at a long-running film festival in which American city?

Miami hosted the debut on March 12, nearly three weeks before the film's general release in American cinemas.