Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
WHEN you have a portfolio of animated buddy comedies like DreamWorks has, expectations of the studio’s latest output are always high.
On the one hand, you expect quality, and that’s what you get with Home. Animation is crisp, the voice acting solid and the story leaves you with a happy, gooey feeling that only movies like this can. But on the other, you can’t help but compare it to its studio mates, and Home falls a little flat in this area.
The story is as daft as a brush, as to be expected. The cowardly Boov are a planet-hopping alien species, constantly on the run from mortal nemesis the Gorgs. Eventually, their next planet on which to seek refuge is Earth.
Captain Smek (Martin) leads the invasion, hoovering up all the humans and transporting them to Australia while the Boov take over their houses.
In the chaos, a teenage girl named Tip (Rihanna) gets separated from her mother Lucy (Lopez) and finds herself alone in the world alongside the Boov. Luckily, it just so happens that an excitable, free-spirited Boov named Oh (Parsons) finds himself outcast and exiled thanks to his clumsiness and unwillingness to acquiesce to the Boov hive mind.
Together, the two set off on a journey to find Tip’s mother and save the Boov race from extinction.
The heart of the film comes from Oh and Tip’s relationship. Initially built on a foundation of distrust and plain dislike, it blossoms into one of companionship and mutual respect. Tip’s pluckiness bounces off Oh’s clumsiness in a variety of amusing ways, and many of the film’s best moments come from Oh’s butchering of the English language and complete lack of understanding of human emotions while Tip has to deal with his incompetence.
The animation is an explosion of colour and brightness (the mood is firmly set on the outlandish and childish rather than dark and brooding) and elicits the appropriate responses (eyes are big and googly when sympathy is required, while smiles are huge and toothy when humour is on the cards), but it isn’t anything ground-breaking or particularly memorable.
The actors bring their own charm to the characters and they certainly ratchet up the excitement to match the on screen antics, which is a relief as celebrities of such prestige often have a habit or turning up for the hefty pay day and recording their lines in a turgid, uninterested ‘am I done yet?’ style.
However, it’s often hard to avoid hearing the stars behind the voice, which is quite distracting when we should be focussing on the screen. Furthermore, many of the scenes showcasing Tip and Oh’s travels seems to be an open love letter to Rihanna’s music, which can get really irritating. No doubt it’s a major coup to get her on board, but for every musical number to be centred on her resembles a vanity project, which is frustrating when there’s plenty of other colourful characters to go around.
In the end, Home’s overarching disappointment is the ‘been there, done that’ feel of events with no unique twist to elevate it above its rivals. An alien species landing on Earth and teaming up with a human girl was done over a decade ago by Lilo and Stitch, and there’s nothing like that partnership’s chemistry or emotional gravitas on display here.
There’s nothing like the raunchy, stomach-hurting laughs of Shrek, the incredible visual design and emotional rollercoaster that is How To Train Your Dragon, or the crazy silliness which drives Madagascar either.
Overall, if you’re looking for a decent kiddie movie to treat your kids to over the Easter break, you won’t go far wrong with Home, but don’t expect it to be one they’ll want to come back to view again and again for years to come.
