The franchise began in 2017 with the release of its first film, Boss Baby. It has grown to include a sequel, two television series, and an interactive special. Now a man on TikTok thinks he’s discovers conservative references in The Boss Baby: Back In Business, the Netflix animation spinoff.
The user (@ballwrinkle) has reached over 3.8 million views on his TikTok video by Monday afternoon.
He starts his video by asking, “Did anyone else know that the Boss Baby franchise is a republican thing?”
“Watch this,” he says as he records his TV playing the Boss Baby movie. The girl baby in the movie says, “Scooter Buskie is a garbage baby.” One of the boy babies responds, “Maybe he’s just misunderstood.”
The girl baby responds by saying, “Oh sorry! I didn’t realize your brother was… a liberal.”
@bellwrinkle How am I just finding out about this😭😭
“What the f*ck, dude,” the user laughs.
He then shows an article from MovieGuide that says Boss Baby is a “hilarious, heartwarming movie with strong pro-life, pro-family, pro-business messages.”
The article also says that the movie is a very strong Christian, moral worldview set in a cartoon. “With positive references to heaven, angels, Jesus, prayer, sacrifice and reconciliation,” it says. This includes scenes with a cartoon version of heaven.
He records another scene in the movie of the main baby saying, “It’s like negotiating with North Korea.”
“What? How am I just finding out about this,” he laughs.
Viewers in the comment section are just as confused. “Why is boss baby always in the top ten on Netflix? WHO IS WATCHING BOSS BABY?” one asks.
Another viewer says, “To be honest I kind of got that vibe. I can’t explain it but something felt right-wing.”
“I always thought it was a spoof on the ridiculousness of capitalism,” another says.
Others say they thought this was the point of the movie. “I thought it was obvious,” one says, “the baby is legit a businessman.”
Some viewers were surprised the franchise was approved. “DreamWorks, what are you doing homie,” one says.
But another viewer who supports Boss Baby says no, the movie doesn’t have a political agenda, writing: “The brother’s are left and right but constantly learning from each other and working together. I have seen every movie and episode of both shows lol.”
Another says, “I just thought it was like that ironically tbh.”
So are there political views written into Boss Baby? The Guardian called the original film a Trump satire because of the baby’s childish business antics. But screenwriter Michael McCullers told the Hollywood Reporter that he wrote most of the movie in 2012 as an adaptation of a children’s book… before Trump was a serious presidential candidate. He said he did not intend to skewer the former president.
Especially because he said these movies take several years to animate. Instead, Boss Baby was meant as a send-up of corporate culture. McCullers wrote for Saturday Night Live and helmed the scripts for the two Austin Powers sequels, hardly conservative institutions. He’s currently writing Shrek 5.
The Daily Dot reached out to the User (@ballwrinkle) via TikTok direct message.
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*First Published: Aug 21, 2023, 10:54 pm CDT
Grace Fowler
Grace Fowler is a summer reporting and media fellow with the Daily Dot. She’s a recent graduate of Texas State University, where she studied mass communications.
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