Home (2015)
Entering the world of juvenile sci-fi, Home takes its audience on an animated adventure with extra terrestrial Oh (Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory) and old enough to drive yet seemingly under 10, Tip (Rihanna, yes, the singer). The story follows the blossoming of an unlikely intergalactic friendship, as the pair discover how first impressions and social stigma arn’t grounds on which to base an understanding of The Outsider (or The Unknown).
Inept fleeing alien race The Boov invade the world in an attempt to hide from their mortal enemy Borg. With conviction that they are doing humans a favour, the whole human race is relocated to a Desert Planet. Ruled by leader Captain Smek (Steve Martin), The Boov are a population of introverts who see little point in relationships of any kind. Prioritising productivity, the concept of fleeing is first and foremost in their coping strategy with the naively optimistic mantra ”The Boov are the best at running away.”
Oh, a purple tentacled alien with an up-do of ears likened to Princess Leia Organa’s infamous locks, is named affectionately after the initial sound his fellow aliens said on greeting him. Notorious for making mistakes, Oh is banished by The Boov for accidentally revealing their new location to enemy Borg by sending out a mass invite to his new earth home house warming.
Female protagonist Tip, full name Gratuity 'Tip' Tucci is a feisty yet lonely human tomboy, desperately in search of her Mom Lucy (Jennifer Lopez) in the aftermath of a world turned upside down by The Boov’s invasion.
Tip and Oh are played by Rhianna and Jim Parsons respectively. It’s important to first address the stars of the show and their relevance within an animated comedy for a target audience of tweens and children. Rhianna - a high-profile provocative pop star, notorious for promoting a sexualised image of women and smoking marijuana, married in animated friendship with popular adult sit-com actor, Jim Parsons.
Best known for playing child mind Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, Jim seems to have been a primary influence on the characterisation and speech mannerisms of Oh. Ninety four minutes of Sheldon Cooper in alien-form gibbering a plethora of annoyingly child like English grammar offences at an audience of sugar high kids seemed to, surreally, succeed. Perhaps he was both literally and metaphorically ‘speaking on their level’ but this audience seemed truly encapsulated by Home (with the exception of the odd new-born).
A grammatical nightmare for any scriptwriter or audience member over the age of ten, The Boov speak not in Dr Seuss lingo but infantile tongue. From the off, this hastily devalues Home’s script. To me, family animation succeeds when script appeals to both child and adult humour, providing an audience with jokes that read on two levels. Unfortunately this isn’t the case within Home, appealing on one disinteresting liner kid plain.
Animation-wise, Home (and DreamWorks) fall nothing short of anything to write home about, neither paragraph nor postcard. Aesthetically the film is basic, successfully appealing to a puerile audience exactly as you’d expect, though simplistic use of colour and shape to dictate protagonists and antagonists.
Home’s sound design is however, a talking point. Sound design and SFX in animation are key and something which I consider, where well considered. Humorous and emotive effects were used successfully uplifting the unsophisticated aesthetic. Despite this, the score was less successful. Pre-signing it seems apparent that there was a (botheringly big) clause allocating a quota of Rhianna’s music. Though the film is marketed at children the soundtrack for Home was worryingly adult, pairing innocent flying scenes with the typical anthems you’d hear blasting in the confines of badly DJ-ed Westend clubs. Rhianna actually created an entire 8 song concept album for the film, releasing March 24th 2015 (don’t wait up) and co-star Jennifer Lopez also jumped on the self-promotion band wagon, releasing “Feel The Light” on February 25th, 2015. Admittedly Lopez’s track is far more filmic and thus appropriate but it does feel somewhat like Home was a synergistic promotional strategy between DreamWorks and Pop Music VS this fresh new generation of malleable minds.
Despite my damning review, the films themes do attempt to speak to (the subconscious of) children. Assumptive first impressions, conformity and normality are all revoked within the narrative, in an attempt to empower a brand new generation of youth (who we can only prey, take no inspiration from the soundtrack). Let’s see if it’s worked, watch this (ten year) space.
17/03/2015, Candid Magazine