Grab a bottle or a briefcase and get ready for DreamWorks’ latest animated film, “Boss Baby.”

Tim (Miles Christopher Bakshi, “Shrek Forever After”) has the perfect life with his family, playing games and getting stories and songs before he falls asleep. This changes when Boss Baby (Alec Baldwin, “Rules Don’t Apply”) moves into his home and grabs his parents’ affection.

In an attempt to reclaim his parents and his home, Tim begins working to show his parents that things are not what they seem and that their new bundle of joy is hiding something right under their noses.

However, the premise gets old quickly.

The opening is very interesting. Viewers see the story develop through Tim’s child-like imagination. It is something that is different from the traditional DreamWorks opening. Yes, many other films open with narrations of the characters’ situations and “Kung Fu Panda” opens with the imagination of the protagonist. By pairing imagination alongside reality the audience is treated to something refreshingly different.

Yet, as audiences are exposed to further and further imagination sequences, many begin to yearn for a small break from the style. Too much of something good can make it bad and Tim’s imagination is a prime example of this.

The writing, as a whole, falters throughout the film. Multiple jokes are too childish or just not funny. It is clear to audiences that they are trying to play on the typical troupes of baby jokes, such as baby talk, cute pictures and the failure to articulate words or ideas. Other scenes meant to be dramatic seem to go by too quickly to have any effect on the audience. It is trying so hard to be both meaningful and funny that it fails to be either.

Unfortunately, the powerhouse comedic capability of the cast does not strengthen the film. With actors such as Jimmy Kimmel (“Scandal”), Lisa Kudrow (“The Girl on the Train”) and Steve Buscemi (“Norman”) lending their voices to the characters, viewers would think that they could elicit even a chuckle. This is not the case. With Kimmel and Kudrow as the parents, they were not given the opportunity to shine that clearly could have enhanced the film.

The overall theme of the film is also blatantly given to audiences throughout the film: the power of love and family. Practically spoon feeding it to audiences, it offers nothing new to moviegoers.

The clearest example of this in the film is a scene in the airport between Tim and Boss Baby. After failing to get to the airport in time, the two fight with one another and Tim tells Boss Baby that he does not know what it means to be born into a family. Hurt, he leaves Tim alone and begins to cry while singing the song his parent sang to him. This scene could have been impactful and an actual decent emotional climax of the film, but the problem is too quickly resolved with a simple phone call the two share.

Overall, the film does not utilize talent and works to be something that it thinks it is, but clearly is not.  The movie has its moments, but these moments are few and not enough to give audiences the enjoyment they were expecting.

Audiences under eight will enjoy, but anyone who has seen a good film will try to find positive aspects and fail to find anything for the majority of the piece. Someone should have just given the writers a binky and nap time, it would have been better for everyone.