Film Review: Home


A new outing from DreamWorks Animation is always something to look forward to. They’ve brought us Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and, one of my personal favourites, the circus afro sequence in Madagascar 3.  The latest addition to the DreamWorks catalogue is Home.

The Boov are on the run from the Gorg and after sidelining humans and setting up a new home on Earth, Oh (Jim Parsons) mistakenly sends an email inviting the whole universe to his housewarming party.  Fearing that the Gorg will find the Boov after receiving the invitation, Captain Smek (Steve Martin) orders that Oh should be captured.  On trying to escape Oh encounters Tip (Rihanna) who is trying to find her Mom (Jennifer Lopez).  Together with Tip’s cat, Pig, they travel to Boov headquarters to discover the whereabouts of Tip’s Mom, hoping that they avoid being captured by both Boov and Gorg.

I have seen the trailer for Home many times over the last few months on trips to the cinema and there’s no doubt that it’s a really funny preview of the movie. It did make me want to see the film, being genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. Here’s the thing though; most of the funny parts are in that trailer.  I have no idea why all the gems were revealed, meaning the trailer is essentially one big spoiler for the film, but that’s basically what has happened.  It’s a real shame.

Jim Parsons is perfect for voicing Oh and his dialogue is my favourite part of the movie, along with Pig the cat who is a good side character to the main action.  Rihanna is ok as the voice for Tip, but the use of her music on the soundtrack smacks of her management having a really good plot for a voice work/album deal, which Jennifer Lopez’s people have also been able to do.  Both have songs that feature in the film, Rihanna actually creating 8 original tracks, none of which really seem to fit into the story properly. Hopefully the days of greats like Randy Newman creating solid scores for animation are not gone.

I really wanted to like Home. The Boov are indeed likeable and are cleverly animated, but after the promise of the trailer the movie left me disappointed.

Home is currently in cinemas.

 

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