The protagonist of Home is vaguely irritating but cute, and changes colour according to mood, though he’s mostly purple. It feels extremely mean-spirited not to like squat, bug-eyed Oh (voiced by Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame), an extra-terrestrial of the Boov species. The Boov celebrate cowardice and live by the mantra, “It’s never too late to run away.” Which would mostly be from the Gorg, another alien race who like destroying planets. This results in the Boov regularly needing to inhabit new planets — the latest being earth.
Dark stuff, you may think, but do remember Home is aimed at kids. The invasion of earth is accomplished with a startling absence of malice and with much bubblegum pop-effervescence. As Oh says, "I am very excitement to make a fresh start. We are all moving to the best planet ever for to hide in."
The Boov turn off earth’s gravity and transport human beings in bubbles to a place called Happy Humanstown — the exact geographical location is unveiled later. Meanwhile, there also exist the Things that fill up human life from cycles to garbage cans, which get bundled into antigravity balls that float away like dandelions. This relocation process inadvertently separates seventh-grader Tip (voiced by Rihanna) and her mother Lucy (voiced by Jennifer Lopez). Tip — full name Gratuity Tucci — decides to go in search of her mum armed with a pet cat named Pig. DreamWorks’ new animated film has its moments, such as a party e-vite that’s accidentally sent to the entire universe with directions on how to get to earth. The Boov are charmingly wacky, and none more so than the Boovian commanding officer Captain Smek (Steve Martin), a blustery egomaniac who consistently misuses everyday human objects to funny effect.
There’s plenty of visual spectacle, cute Boov patois, and positive messages about friendship and courage. Director Tim Johnson surprisingly manages to create family-friendly entertainment within the alien invasion genre. However, the film stops short of mapping out really new territory, and also suffers from being too predictable. You know how it's all going to stack up, even the briefly upside-down Eiffel Tower. “This planet may be a bit of a fixing-it-upper,” Oh says of earth, “but that’s okay.” He might as well have been speaking of the film. While Oh’s sweetly silly syntax will never reach the cult levels of Yoda-speak, allows, it does, a pleasantness outing for to the cinema.