“Home” is one of those standard, inoffensive, mildly entertaining family films that are explicitly designed for parents in search of an hour-and-a-half of peace.
There’s nothing particularly remarkable about the movie, which has been the DreamWorks Animation modus operandi of late, provided you’re not training a dragon or visiting Madagascar.
“Home” is about the most benign alien invasion ever, when a race of color-changing E.T.’s called the boov simply move in and politely relocate all humans to a remote corner of the globe. Well, almost all the humans. A middle-schooler named Gratuity Tucci (Tip, for short), who is voiced by singing megastar Rihanna, is separated from her mother Lucy (Jennifer Lopez) during the great relocation.
The boov, while well-meaning, are not a particularly noble or perceptive group. Led by the goofy Captain Smek (Steve Martin), the boov bounce around the galaxy constantly on the run from another violent race of aliens bent on their destruction.
Tip and her pet cat are hiding out when they run into a social outcast boov named Oh (Jim Parsons), who is guilty of the crime of being an annoying bungler.
Tip and Oh form an unlikely partnership as they trek around the world trying to find Tip’s mother, while Oh tries to understand why an inferior species like humans would have any problem with a benevolent race of aliens moving in and taking over.
As you would expect, life lessons are learned, jokes about toilets are made and the credits roll over a big, happy ending.
Again, there is nothing all that terrible about this movie (unless you find Parsons’ voice to be grating, then you are in big trouble) but you might be overwhelmed by its averageness.
Even still, it is successful at its main purpose of distracting the elementary-age set and probably won’t make parents want to claw their eyes out, so that counts as a win in the family-movie genre. It’s just too bad for “Home” it’s a genre that’s stepped up its game to the point this movie feels like a disappointment.
“Home” is rated PG for mild action and some rude humor.
