How Baby Boss 2 Aims For The Godfather 2 Level Of Quality

Director Tom McGrath gave us behind the scenes of this sequel during the Annecy animated film festival, in 2021. Flashback, on the occasion of the special Baby Boss evening on TF1.

Notice to spectators who are fans of animation, from 9:10 p.m., TF1 is planning a special evening Baby Boss. But be careful, number 2 will be offered before the original film!

To avoid getting too lost, we’re sharing our interview with its director, Tom McGrath, who detailed Dreamworks’ crazy ambitions for this sequel to Première.

Baby Boss: “A return to the roots” of animation for Dreamworks

Interview from June 14, 2021: Five years after revealing the first images of Baby Boss, Tom McGrath is back in Annecy. Well almost: the Covid obviously happened and the director was unable to make the trip to meet the festival-goers. To compensate, he and part of his team recorded a video to go behind the scenes of this Boss Baby 2: A Family Affair, scheduled for October 13 in French theaters. Tim Templeton and his little brother Ted are adults and live separately. But the arrival of a new Boss Baby, with a whole new approach and an innovative strategy, is about to bring together the feuding brothers…and inspire a new model in family business.

“ The studio wanted a sequel. But why ? Because the first one did well and made money? But did we have anything else to talk about? asks McGrath. Obviously, the trigger came from this new baby, a little girl who will shake up the relationship between the two brothers. Result: a very “ female centric », assures producer Jeff Herman. “ We took back the baby who appeared at the end of the first film », explains McGrath, “ and we wondered how she could get past the baby boss » original, still dubbed by Alec Baldwin. “ The first thing he said to me was: ”It has to be as good as The Godfather 2 !” »laughs the filmmaker, who also cites Aliens in its pantheon of sequels. “ Only very funny films (Laughs.) »

Judging by the few sequences revealed (including an impressive chase on a sleigh through the city), the 50’s design of the first part is here supported to the extreme: rarely has 3D given the impression of being so much of 2D. “ We wanted to find what we loved in old Disney or Warner films », assures him production designer Raymond Zybach, friend of thirty years of the director. “ And thematically, it worked really well », continues the latter. A technical puzzle (how to give the impression of 2D while allowing a character or an object to be seen from all angles?) for an extremely ambitious visual result.

The project seems to be summed up in a very graphic and poetic musical sequence (“ This is the favorite scene of many people who have seen the film », assures the producer), orchestrated by Hans Zimmer himself : “ We really wanted it to be a special sequence “, says Tom McGrath. “ And when we started talking to Hans Zimmer about it, we had a temporary song, If you want to sing out by Cat Stevens. He said to us: ”But why would you put any other song than that?” So we kept it “, he smiles, before concluding with a “ I love you Annecy », and send a paper plane towards the screen, the hallmark of all the animation festival screenings.