: (Hans Zimmer/Steve
Mazzaro) When in doubt, create a sequel with the same or similar
characters, scenarios, and gags as your previous successes and let them
rake in more cash. That's the formula for DreamWorks with 2021's
, a largely redundant but sentimental
follow-up to the 2017 movie about a magical baby universe where the
infants run the show as if they were adults. In the second movie, the
Templeton brothers of the first movie are grown up, and one of their own
children turns out to be a boss baby herself. Her mission is to stop
another boss baby from turning all parents worldwide into zombies and
help heal the wounded relationship of her father and uncle. Some but not
all of the previous voice vast returns, and Tom McGrath and Michael
McCullers' new story adds enough fresh character interactions to satisfy
kids with predictably dumb humor. Adults were less enthusiastic,
failing to muster the same critical or
viewer response as its predecessor. Predictably, the film contains the
usual balance of original and licensed songs and a frenetic score by
Remote Control Productions, Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro reteaming to
reprise much of the personality of the score for the prior film. Zimmer
and Mazzaro are becoming frequent collaborators in the animation realm,
and the results, as with the just preceding
are typically adequate but not outstanding. The
score for
was dominated by a main theme that was
translated into a tremendously lush romantic expression by Conrad Pope.
Outside of that cue, the score was a haphazard string of parodies
loosely held together by its main theme. The hope with these scores is
that Mazzaro will evolve into the next John Powell in these
collaborations with Zimmer, and there is some evidence that he is
attempting just that in
There are indeed some glimpses of techniques and mastery
akin to Powell's work in this score, but they are fleeting, and casual
listeners won't notice much of a difference from the original work. That
said, the sequel does have a better-rounded set of themes to accompany
the schizophrenic personality of each cue. As with the previous score,
there is no clear attribution in
The Boss Baby: Family Business
as to which composer wrote what cues, still an ongoing, significant
problem caused by Zimmer's methodology. Most of the musical genres
pilfered before are exploited again, though the shifting between them is
not quite as jarring. The theremin effect for suspense returns in "The
Attic" like "Baby Brother" from previous score, a honky-tonk piano plods
in "Meet the Templetons," funky jazz returns in "Crisis at Baby Corp"
and "Acorn School," Western hoedown fiddle madness ensues in "We
Overslept," easy Latin rhythms soothe in "Latchkey Kid," and overblown
fantasy with choir opens "Baby Pep Rally." The most blatant true parody
comes in the form of Randy Newman's
The Natural at the outset of
"The Chase." The recording sounds equivalent to the first score; the
instruments don't sound blatantly sampled, but the performances aren't
particularly nuanced, either. There is a bit more verve in the depth of
this work than
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Thematically, Zimmer and Mazzaro muddy the picture a bit with the
sequel, but film score collectors may prefer the music's resulting
narrative arc. The main theme and its bright interlude both return, but
don't expect the primary phrase to dominate the action cues like it did
in the first score. Its major and minor modes, led by a pair of
descending notes, dominated "Survival of the Fittest," "Baby Brother,"
and "Go Get Yourself a Horse" (aside from the Pope-arranged cue), and
its extremely happy, descending interlude sequence was never far behind.
For Baby Corp, the composers had written a faux 1950's idea of wholesome
productivity while the familial elements were represented by a pair of
ideas explored in "I Wish You Were Never Born." Likewise, an
action/victory motif in "Arrrggh" and "You're Fired" highlighted that
score.
Sadly, while the established main theme and its
interlude persist in
The Boss Baby: Family Business, and the Baby
Corp material carries over to a degree, the majority of these and all
the other ideas are replaced in the sequel with new themes. Even the
treatment of the main theme is somewhat unsatisfactory here despite
fairly frequent applications. It debuts here in "The Attic" on slight
flutes at the start, with the happy interlude resurrected at 3:38. It
shifts from funk to espionage mode in "The Secret Formula." The
interlude is offered in suspense mode at 1:36 into "The Chase" before it
is joined by the primary phrasing thereafter in fragments. Slight
references follow in latter half of "Acorn School." The theme finally
bursts forth in full swing with its interlude in proper fashion in "Meet
the Templetons," where it blows through several genres in the cue most
like the previous score. A large brass sendoff at end of the cue is
nice; it reveals where the theme is headed in this score. Also
reminiscent of the prior score is the clarinet humor for the theme to
open "Family Dinner." The idea starts "Stop the Show" with opening
phrases on bold brass, the full theme later expressed with bravado by
those players. The theme closes "Mission Planning" and opens "Shutdown
the Server" (shouldn't that be "Shut Down"?) briefly, eventually
littered throughout the action of that cue. A solo piano rendition
graces "The Greatest Gift" before yielding to the full interlude
sequence at its most exuberant. Zimmer and Mazzaro reshape the main
theme from
The Boss Baby into a new identity in the sequel,
developing it into a formidable replacement by the end. This idea
adjoins the main theme in "Meet the Templetons" and "Mission Planning,"
becoming prominent by 0:59 into "Yay Templetons!" It cheerfully merges
again with the main theme in latter half of "The Greatest Gift." A
similar transition happens with the Baby Corp theme, reprising its
original form in lush form to open "To Baby Corp" before returning to
its 1950's version later in the cue. A brief snippet recurs late in
"Meet the Templetons." This identity is replaced, however, by snazzy
finger-snapping, electric bass, Hammond organ, and guitar coolness in
"Crisis at Baby Corp," "They're Home!," and "It's Back On."
The extended Baby Corp musical personality in
The
Boss Baby: Family Business matures into a remarkably cool new idea
in "Mission Planning" (with hints of the first score's action motif) but
returns to its base hipness with interjections at 2:20 and 3:46 into
"Shutdown the Server." The de facto family theme for the brothers of the
first story (established in "I Wish You Were Never Born" during that
score) is abandoned here, replaced by a better alternative built on
secondary phrases from that existing theme. Debuting on acoustic guitar
and piano in "Bedtime," the cue "Family Dinner" more formally shifts
from the previous score's motif to this new family theme in latter half.
The idea recurs softly in "Marcos Comes Home" but becomes chipper early
in "School Days," developing into a John Powell-like kazoo moment of
silliness with a redemptive, symphonic end. It continues in minor-key
action mode at 3:26 into "Shutdown the Server" and is victorious on
strings at 1:38 into "Yay Templetons!," a noble brass rendition
following at 2:36. The villainous Armstrong baby receives pairs of
descending notes in "Armstrong" with a slight waltz rhythm; it's mildly
creepy ambience mostly and not very effective. Extended with the same
rhythmic stance and broader menace in "Baby Pep Rally," the motif
interjects near the end of "School Days," slithers into "Stop the Show,"
and is dramatic in the opening moments of "Yay Templetons!" The
action/victory motif from the prior score isn't explicitly reprised in
The Boss Baby: Family Business, but a large and brassy variant
does occur in "Ted Comes Home." A notable theme for the Acorn School,
bubbly in its performance at 1:57 into "Acorn School," does not
foreshadow the Armstrong motif or any other material. On the whole,
these themes are a better lot than those in
The Boss Baby, but
the lack of dominant placement for the main theme is a disappointment.
There are some really robust orchestral moments in the sequel that yield
ten to fifteen minutes of engaging material, though nothing in that time
beats the "Love" cue from the prior score. A pair of innocuous songs
important to the film round out an album featuring over an hour of
score. Enthusiasts of Zimmer and Mazzaro's work for the 2017 entry will
appreciate the greater depth in this sequel, but most listeners won't
really notice a difference.
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Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85
(in 127 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 298,977 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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