Baby's Day Out is a 1994 comedy film, written by John Hughes and produced by Richard Vane and John Hughes, and directed by Patrick Read Johnson. The film stars twins Adam and Jacob Worton who share the part of Baby Bink. The plot centers around one day's adventures of a kidnapped and partly-invisible baby in the city. The film was a box office bomb and panned by critics and moviegoers alike.
Plot
Baby Bink Cotwell (Adam Robert Worton and Jacob Joseph Worton), the main protagonist, couldn't ask for more; he has adoring parents, he lives in a huge mansion, and he is just about to appear in the social pages of the paper.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the world is as nice as Bink's parents; especially the three klutzy, would-be kidnappers: Edgar "Eddie" Mauser (Joe Mantegna), Norbert "Norby" LeBlaw (Joe Pantoliano), and Victor "Veeko" Riley (Brian Haley), the main antagonists.
Eddie, Veeko, and Norby disguise themselves as the photographers from the newspaper in order to kidnap Baby Bink.
Successfully kidnapping Baby Bink, Eddie, Veeko, and Norby have a harder time keeping hold of Bink, whose curiosity enables him to escape from the kidnappers.
Not only does Baby Bink keep one step ahead of the kidnappers, but he seems to be more than a little bit smarter than them. A chase ensues all over the city for Bink, with only the people connected to the kidnapping or to Bink himself able to physically see him.
Cast
Reception
Critical reception
Baby's Day Out holds a 23% "rotten" approval rating at the review website Rotten Tomatoes, with 3 positive reviews from 13. The Chicago Sun Times' Roger Ebert wrote "Baby's Day Out" contains gags that might have worked in a Baby Herman cartoon, but in live action, with real people, real taxis and buses and streets and a real baby, they're just not funny. The Worton twins are adorable as Baby Bink, however; the audience produced an audible coo the first time they saw Bink on the screen."[1] In contrast Hal Hinson, writing for the Washington Post wrote "The pace is quick and efficient but never frantic...Almost everything in the picture is just right, including the two-bit crooks who abduct the superhero toddler and end up bruised and begging hilariously for mercy. Best of all, though, is the Binkman himself, whose tiny face is so expressive that he brings new meaning to the phrase "conquering with a smile."[2]
Box office performance
The film opened with takings of $4,044,662 at the start of July 1994, the 83rd top performing of 1994.[3][4] The film grossed $16,827,402 at the U.S. Box Office, a disappointing return considering the $48 million production budget for the film. It ranked at #83 for the best performing films of 1994 and ranks in the top 3000 best grossing films of all time.[5] It was also the 26th best performing PG-rated family film of the year in 1994.[3]
Videogame
A Baby's Day Out videogame was planned to be released on Sega Genesis, but never saw the light of day. However two prototypes can be found for download on the several ROM sites. One of the prototypes is a near completed version while the other is a very early beta. The gameplay might be an obvious factor as to why the game was pulled, instead of playing as Bink (as one might think would be case) the player controls what appears to be an angel. The object is to use the angel to guide Bink to safety away from robbers.[citation needed]
References
External links
