Rating: Pg
Runtime: 94 minutes
Directed By: Tim Johnson
Starring:  Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin

Plot: After years of hiding from a dominate alien race, the Boov are forced to prepare for destruction after one of their own, Oh(Jim Parsons) accidently outs their location that is a now invaded Earth. Captain smek(Steve Martin), leader of the Boov after realizing Oh’s mistake sets all of Boov kind against Oh. Now on the run from his own people for the damage done, Oh happens upon one of the last humans inhabitants the city of New York, Gratuity ‘Tip” Tucci(Rihanna). Tip and Oh then set out on a quest to reunite Tip with her mother that has been relocated by the Boov.

Review: Tim Johnson’s Home represents the peak and limitations of a tired formula that crops up all throughout the family friendly animated movie spectrum. Home is not a bad movie, it is simply a good film held back by an extensive need to “fit” and appeal to a younger audience through pop culture references, celebrity voice casting and cheap cliche emotional sentiments. The film is littered with colorful interesting characters but, it’s paint by numbers approach to situations makes the otherwise great characters seem dull. Home tries desperately to be an animated film on par with Pixar but, sadly plays it safe with a predictable plot and a checklist of cliches that amounts to a meh product.

The animation of Home is on par with other Dream Works films like How To Train Your Dragon and The Madagascar films. The animation is fluid and vibrant and there is an obvious attention to detail when it came to visual comedy. The animation is fast and works upon its speed to create an ever moving experience. The character designs of the film especially the aliens followed a very simple scheme and though some could perceive it as a bland, they are instead a welcome change from some of the more overly complex designs now found in modern 3d animated films. The world design relies heavily upon an almost realistic design that is similar to that of Illumination Studio, creators of Minions and The Lorax.

The character of Oh(Jim Parsons) is without a doubt the best part of Home. Jim Parsons plays Oh with an ignorant positivity that is hard to resist. The lines of dialogue from Oh are clever and even made me chuckle a few times as he comes to understand human culture. His partner in crime, Tip played by Rihanna is a welcome change for animated family films as she actually seems like a real girl. Tip is weird, loud and strong. She has her own motivations and flaws that develop well over the film. Tip and Oh’s relationship throughout the film is what holds the film together and what honestly kept me from leaving the theater. I wanted to see where their relationship would go and I felt emotionally invested in Tip and Oh quest to find Tip’s mother. There are also several other stand characters such as Steve Martin as the enigmatic and asinine leader of Boov, Captain Smek.  Matt Jones also gets several laughs as the clunky police boov Kyle.

The plot unlike the great characters wavers on the tightrope it walks on. The movie is a chase film in the vein of Mad Max: Fury Road but, surprisingly  Fury Road gave me more optimistic for humanity. The film is filled to brim with Deus Ex Machina and never wavers from relating important backstory information moments before it is relevant. There is even the terribly overused liar revealed cliche where in which one of the main characters lies and then another main character finds this information out leading to a sad montage where both characters mope. I sat in the theater playing a game of “what will happen next?” and I was never wrong and boy did I want to be. The experience of watching Home is a series of rolling eyes and checking the time.

The film overall is funny, beautifully generated, frustrating and is just good enough. Though therein lies the biggest problem with Home, that it’s just good. There’s nothing specifically wrong or right with Home, it’s a passive experience and in that it becomes worse than even a terrible film from the same family movie catalogue. Without the close relationships of the two main characters the film is any another bland family movie to keep your kids entertained for 90 minutes.