The Picture Book Behind The New Movie 'Boss Baby'

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

This past, weekend the animated kids movie "Boss Baby" opened and was number one in the box office. Elissa Nadworny of NPR Ed reports, before it was a movie, "Boss Baby" was an illustrated children's book.

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Alec Baldwin brought "The Boss Baby" into theaters. He voices the all-business, straight-talking newborn.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BOSS BABY")

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ALEC BALDWIN: (As Boss Baby) I'm on a mission. There's not enough love to go around. My job is to find out why. Now, give me a double espresso and see if there's someplace around here with decent sushi. I'd kill for a spicy tuna roll right about now.

MARLA FRAZEE: He's a suit-wearing...

(LAUGHTER)

FRAZEE: He has a suit-wearing onesie, and he arrives in a taxi with a briefcase, as babies do.

NADWORNY: That's Marla Frazee, the original voice behind "The Boss Baby." She created the picture book that inspired the film. Frazee is a big name for young readers. Her illustrations won her two Caldecott awards, and she created her first book in the second grade. She's gone on to write and illustrate many more. The book "Boss Baby" was a Publishers Weekly best book of 2010. The story is simple, and a baby arriving in a taxi is just the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Reading) From the moment the baby arrived, it was obvious that he was the boss. He put Mom and Dad on a round-the-clock schedule with no time off. And then he set up his office right smack dab in the middle of the house. He made demands, many, many demands, and he was quite particular. If things weren't done to his immediate satisfaction, he had a fit.

NADWORNY: All while wearing his business suit onesie and a very stern expression on his baby face. The idea came from a new arrival to Frazee's own family.

FRAZEE: This little kitten was sort of creating havoc in our home, so he - this little kitten was pooping underneath the Christmas tree and on our beds and in the fireplace. And my 15-year-old came up to me two weeks after Christmas and said, I really think we need to contact the cat adoption people because this cat is stressing everybody out. I'm really sorry. And I said, well, it's fine. Like, this is nothing. You should've seen what it was like when you three were babies. You know, we kept you. It'll be fine. We'll learn how to love this cat.

NADWORNY: And, of course, they did. Frazee loved watching her kids cope - because it was so familiar - she just had to capture the struggle of living with a very new, very small boss. And it wasn't such a big leap from picture book to big screen because Frazee's retro-looking artwork was inspired by vintage TV sitcoms like "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

FRAZEE: I was almost imagining that there was a - sort of a TV theme song going on while all his - while he came in as the main character. So the vibe of it definitely was from that time period.

(SOUNDBITE OF LES BAXTER SONG, "SHOOTING STAR/JUNGALERO")

NADWORNY: Author and illustrator Marla Frazee who created the original "Boss Baby," which has been adapted into a movie. Elissa Nadworny, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF LES BAXTER SONG, "SHOOTING STAR/JUNGALERO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.