From picture book to feature film: the Boss Baby author reveals the character's origins
CBC Radio | Posted: April 28, 2017 12:45 PM | Last Updated: April 28, 2017
It all started with a funny little doodle.
Author and illustrator Marla Frazee was on the phone with a friend, who was complaining about her boss, when she drew the Boss Baby for the very first time. "It was an empathetic drawing but it cracked me up," Frazee remembers. "So I put it up in my studio."
It took some time for Frazee to conceptualize something solid surrounding her funny character but she eventually pitched it to her editor — and at first, it didn't work.
"It became less and less funny as I did each sketch," she explains. "At one point, my editor said, 'You know, I probably don't know if I really want to see this anymore.'"
But, Frazee didn't give up. Instead, she changed the name of her character many times (at one point even calling the baby the "Little F--ker") and, at last, a book was published.
That book served as the inspiration behind the latest Dreamworks film of the same name, something that blew Frazee away. "I think it's hilarious," she says, of the movie's interpretation of her book and character. "It's such a rollercoaster — I've seen it six times!"
Frazee's follow-up to the Boss Baby, titled the Bossiest Baby, came out last year.
— Produced by Dawna Dingwall