The Boss Baby
[Warning: may contain spoilers. If you haven't seen this movie, you've been warned.]
For a children's movie, The Boss Baby does meta fiction pretty well. It is a story told by a young boy (although he is now grown up) about how he got his new brother. But the one thing that runs through his whole tale is the fact that adults never believe childrens' stories. They think that it is all just a result of limitless imagination, and so they never take kids seriously. Yet the movie is intentionally ambiguous about whether Tim's account, even though he is an adult, is true. It would seem ridiculous to create babies like some kind of assembly-line product and have some babies assigned to work instead of families. Even more ridiculous is the plot to out-cute babies by breeding new the perfect puppy. And yet, in the world of cartoons, this is more than possible. What leaves you guessing is the fact that Tim and Boss Baby are the only characters who seem to see things this way, as all of the adults see only a young boy who is hesitantly coming to care for his baby brother. And the animators let the audience see events both ways, only revealing the baby to the Boss Baby when the boys are alone.
Even though we spend the whole movie feeling bad that this poor little boy can't get anyone to believe that his baby brother torments him, we still question whether any of it really happened that way or if it was, in fact, all in his head.
While it is a little complicated (for the sake of making the plot interesting), the story that Tim tells presents a really great analogy for the experience of getting a new sibling. He is completely convinced that this little person is specifically trying to make him look bad, to steal all of the attention and his parents' love. To Tim, even Boss Baby crying is an act. He feels like the baby is an outsider who does not belong in the family, a relatable experience for many elder siblings. And it is o lay when he comes to understand that this is the baby's only family that he changes his point of view. Suddenly, they have a shared affection for their parents that brings them together and allows them to get to know each other.
If you're not an English Major and meta fiction means nothing to you, then this family-focussed film will draw you in through the journey of these two boys becoming brothers while trying to defeat the people in charge at Puppy Co. It's a unique analogy, but it works.
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