“I’m not so quick to go see kiddie movies as I used to be (except for Pixar, always always must go), even if I like some of the voice actors. There’s so many dumbed down animated films flooding the theaters recently that I tend to be more selective, lest I put valuable brain cells at risk. I was intrigued by Home (hello there Jim Parson alien), but didn’t put it on the list right away. Then when planning out last weekend, I realized that I did really wanna see this, so off I went this weekend. And oh em eff gee, Jim Parsons alien is the cutest thing ever (for varying definitions of ever).
Jim Parsons alien is a Boov named Oh. The Boov are timid little creatures that frequently travel across the galaxy, seeking safety from their enemies, the Gorg. They find a new home planet, populate it, modify it to their liking, and run away and start over when the Gorg approach. Following their leader Captain Smek (Steve Martin), they inhabit Earth. The first step is moving all humans to a new colony designated for them, and then the Boov can keep the rest of the planet. Oh, in trying to send an evite to his fellow Boov for a housewarming party, he accidentally sends it to the entire galaxy, including the Gorg. Afraid of what his punishment may be for making yet another mistake, Oh runs away. He finds Tip, a young child who was accidentally skipped during the human relation, and as such has been separated from her mother. Oh agrees to take Tip to get help as he tries to figure out a way to stop the Gorg from finding the Boov.
First off, as someone who works in software, it bugged me to absolutely no end that the catalyst of all the trouble was that there was a Send All button in their email program right next to Send, and that Send All button sent to the entire galaxy. That’s a very bad UI (user interface). Any software developer worth their salt would not make it so easy to make such a grave error. Now, I understand it was simply a plot device that wasn’t meant to be analyzed (similar to why didn’t Ariel write Prince Eric a note when she lost her voice), but it took a long time for me to get over it. Basically, it took until that part of the story was resolved to finally dismiss the detail.
That aside, I still can’t get over how cute Oh is. It’s mostly in his strange pattern of speech (“”Can I come into the out now…You are only having to remove this piece of wood””) but also his bright eyed wonder at the world. At the risk of type casting himself, no one else but Jim Parsons could have pulled off his matter of fact but endearing cadence. If nothing else, I left wanting my own Oh for companion on the ship.
I also really liked Rihanna voicing Tip. She had some real attitude and bite to her, with such an expressive voice. Of course, it meant we were then left with a soundtrack that was all Rihanna’s music (and much more family friendly than her good stuff) but it was an acceptable trade off. If anything, she might have sounded a touch too old for such a young character, but I’d take someone who can really give the character life over the potentially flat performance of a younger voice actress.
So yeah, plot wise, eh. Simple but predictable, nothing too exciting. But the characters are certainly enough to sustain the film, and I’d love to see more of them.
Home – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n”