En route!

There's nothing particularly new or fancy about Dreamworks' latest animated affair. There are no breathtaking action sequences like in their How To Train Your Dragon and Kung-Fu Panda franchises. Nor is there the amount of laughs you'll find in their classics Megamind or, again, the Kung-Fu Panda films. Yet there's something so utterly sweet and innocent about Home that it zooms by with an enchanting charm. When people tell you to calm down by going to your happy place, it probably looks something like this. It's arguably the most child-centric movie Dreamworks have produced for a few years too. The adult-targeted humour is kept to a minimum and the physical comedy is amped up to levels that is normally irritating but here works an absolute treat. Its success can be attributed, in a big way, to the lovable alien Oh (Jim Parsons). A clumsy go-getter with endearing optimism, cuddly colour-changing looks, and amusing speech patterns, Oh steals the spotlight whenever he is on screen, which is about 95% of the time. As his plucky partner in adventure, Tip, Rihanna's precocious human child is fairly stock standard, whilst Steve Martin's dim-witted leader of Oh's Boov race lands a few hilarious moments among some dull ones. Vibrant, energetic and with an unexpected tear-jerking finale, Home falls on the right side of simple.

Jim Parsons and Rihanna's characters give this animated kids movie a relationship that is the center conflict in a somewhat simple alien invasion story. Steve Martin provides excellent humor as silly Captain Smek. The first time I saw it, I was blown away by how the animators and voice actors combined skills to make this a favorite of mine. It is easy to watch, and emotional at appropriate times.

Home is a good animation movie, nothing more and nothing less. It is not as horrible as some are making it out to be. It does start off slow but then it picks up and you start liking it. In the end it depends a lot on how much you like the 2 main characters and the music. I did like the characters enough to care about them. The music was just OK except one song which was great.

Home is not what I would call a great movie though. You can't compare it to the likes of Beauty & the Beast, Lion King, Tangled, etc.

My advice to anyone who is planning to watch Home is to be patient at the start and follow the interactions of the main characters closely. This is a movie about relationships. If you liked Frozen then chances are you will like Home.

As a fan of animated films and Jim Parsons, Home felt like something I would enjoy. When the first Rihanna song started playing, I grew skeptical. When the next one started, I got tired of it. There's actually 5 Rihanna songs in the film. 5. Five. Along with Rihanna playing one of the lead roles. And I should mention that her character is not singing these songs. She's just listening and dancing to Rihanna. Sorry, but nope. Home started feeling like a commercial for some Rihanna album or a very long music video. I don't think I will remember this film, but if I do it would be for exactly that, and I would forget the story.

However, if you're not like me and don't care about such things, the movie itself is pretty cute.

Took my 8-year-old girls. It was cute. They enjoyed it well enough.

But on the car ride home, when I asked about their favorite part, the best they could come up with was the cow joke (I won't repeat it).

After all the great animated kid's movies of the last 10 years (Nemo, Shrek, Cars, Frozen, etc), this one is completely forgettable. In a month or two, my girls won't even remember it. Can't imagine they'll ever ask to get a DVD or watch it at home.

I'm not sorry I took them, nor was it a waste of money. But we are so spoiled by such great animated movies that a mediocre one like this becomes disappointing.