Jim Parsons goes out of this world for “Home”
By: Nick Salacki, Columnist
From DreamWorks Studios, which brought us such notable films as the “How to Train Your Dragon” films and the “Shrek” franchise, now comes “Home,” a film that could be said to be just as fun-loving and heart-warming, but targeted strictly toward DreamWorks’ young audience.
The character “Oh,” voiced by Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory,”, is part of a species called Boov. They are being hunted by a ruthless villain known as the Gorg who are believed to consistently take control of any planet that gets in their way, the Boov’s planet next on the list.
Now the Boov must flee to find another place to call home, which turns out to be Earth. In the process of making Earth their new home, the Boov send all human life forms away except one young girl, Tip.
Rihanna, who also compiled the film’s soundtrack, plays the voice of Tip who is now alone with her cat named Pig. She yearns to find her mother after she was forced away by the Boov.
Oh also feels alone and after yet another failed attempt at making friends with a “warming of house” party, which no one showed up to, he decides he’d rather live out the rest of his days in isolation in Antarctica. When Tip and Oh cross paths however, Oh takes the chance to make a deal. He agrees to help Tip find her mother in exchange for Tip taking Oh to Antarctica in Tip’s car, which Oh turned into a flying car with convenience store slushies for fuel.
So begins this fun and hilarious journey the two of them depart on.
“Home” (rated PG) is originally based on the novel “The True Meaning of Smekday” written by Adam Rex. The screenplay was then adapted by the writers behind “Failure to Launch,” “Get Smart” and Blue Sky Studios’ “Epic” who turned the story into one about friendship, perseverance and trust. The film’s director, Tim Johnson, previously directed movies like Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Antz, and Over the Hedge.
What’s very interesting is that there were hardly any jokes in this film that pertained to the adults in the audience.
I haven’t seen anything from DreamWorks like this that has been strictly targeted toward children. With Tip and Oh’s modern-day style of personalities and mannerisms, I could definitely tell that the screenwriters did their homework on what catches and captivates the attention of today’s young children.
I also couldn’t help but notice that there were no stereotypical female Boovs in the entire film, and that most of the Boov seemed to convey an androgynous-like appeal to their voice and nature. The overall design of the Boov species did their part to bring a smile to every child with the alien race’s simple, circular body shape and their multiple stump-like tentacles.
When I walked into this Tim Johnson directed family flick, I reminded myself of the fact that Jim Parsons had been cast to provide his voiceover.
With this in mind, I had a hunch that the filmmakers may have intended to overuse the voice that many Americans have come to love from his eccentric and quirky character on “The Big Bang Theory.”
To me personally, I have found Parsons’ voice to be somewhat annoying, partially because the “The Big Bang Theory” commercials tend to play frequently on a loop.
But after giving the film a chance to ease in, I found it to be extremely cute, adorable and enjoyable, with Parson’s rather enjoyable and charming voice to be a perfect fit for his character.
I give this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars.
