Home (2015)
Certified: U
Duration: 94 minutes
Directed by: Tim Johnson
Voices of: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Steve Martin, Matt L. Jones, Brian Stepanek, April Lawrence
KRS Releasing Ltd

Oh (Jim Parsons) is an extraterrestrial who is adept at getting into trouble. He comes from an alien race known as the Boov who are a very good at escaping from danger. They are being chased by their enemy, the Gorg, who want to exterminate all the species.

With no other planets to live in, the species see earth as their last chance to find a habitat. So all humans are relocated to one spot on earth. When this happens, Oh sends a communication to his friend Kyle (Matt Jones), who is a traffic controller, about the mission’s success – something which was supposed to be a secret. Even worse, he sends it out as an open message and everyone learns about it and it soon becomes common knowledge to the Gorg.

Captain Smek (Steve Martin) gets his most intelligent Boov to try to stop any possible danger. Meanwhile, Oh is on the lam along with Gratuity ‘Tip’ Tucci (Rihanna), a teenager and the only person not to be reallocated. She wants to find her mother Lucy (Jennifer Lopez) while Oh simply wants to hide. Meanwhile, everyone is not sure whether they are safe or if the Gorg will actually come.

DreamWorks Animation has made some hits recently especially The Croods (2013) and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014). Home could be another similar hit.

Tim Johnson, who has directed the likes of Antz (1998) and Over The Hedge (2006), delivers a sweet and colourful movie that is both a laugh-a-minute comedy and also a heart warming tale. It’s almost as if this was the children’s version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind crossed over with Disney’s Lilo and Stitch and E.T. for good measure.

Home also has a satirical edge to it

Johnson keeps the movie chugging along nicely, especially from the moment Oh and Tip meet and then interact as they rush off in a car that runs on slush power in order to try and save the world.

The film has comic elements that work well both for the young and accompanying adults, especially in the way Oh makes atrocious use of English.

It incorporates several pop music elements and Rihanna who delivers a good vocal performance but also some good pop tunes. However, it is Parsons from The Big Bang Theory as Oh who steals the show in the vocal department. He is very recognisable and his trademarke style of innocence is well carried over into this character. Meanwhile, Martin as the Boov captain is simply hilarious as he runs away with his doofus character.

Jim Parsons, who voices Oh, brings to the film his trademark style of innocence.

The director sees fit to integrate a set of lessons among the laughs, whizzes and phantasmagoria of colours. Here we have a tale of an immigrant girl, of the need to accept others for what they are and, most of all, of friendship.

This adaptation of bestselling children’s book The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is quite a visual feast. The Boov themselves are not only presented as cute and annoying, but shift colour in accordance to their emotions.

The film’s central element is the friendship and bond that arises between Oh and Tip and this is what the audience will associatewith most. This is presented in a very strong and authentic vein that adds another dimension to all the pastel colours that have been injected into the picture.

Home also has a satirical edge to it that makes it very appealing.