Movie Review - Home

Home **½ (out of 5) (PG) In this animated feature from Dreamworks, Earth is peacefully taken over by the most adorable aliens any studio’s marketing department could craft. The Boovs are a colorful, cowardly race, on the run from reptilian rivals who are trying to wipe them out. Earth is the latest hideout of choice. But when their relocation devices gather all of us for deposit in Australia, one girl and her cat are missed, setting up this adventure in which she and a non-conformist Boov named Oh become our protagonists. She wants to re-join her mom; he wants to keep the bad guys from finding his species. The two are voiced nicely by Rihanna and Jim Parsons in this mildly amusing farce.

He makes mistakes that jeopardize the whole project; trust develops slowly between the pair, with a fair scattering of semi-zany antics and gags along the way. But the result falls short on delivering either the warm fuzzies of a Wall.E, or the madcap fun of recent fare like The Lego Movie or Big Hero 6. It plays out as if the makers were more interested in moving the inevitable slew of toys and dolls this film will spawn than crafting the most entertaining movie. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the film, and younger viewers will likely be so delighted by what they see that the script will matter little. The grownups who bring them in may not be as sufficiently stimulated.(3/27/15)

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