User:LancedSoul/sandbox/Home (2015)

Home is a 2015 American computer-animated science-fiction comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Loosely based on Adam Rex's 2007 children's book The True Meaning of Smekday, the film was directed by Tim Johnson from a screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember and stars the voices of Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Matt Jones. The film premiered at the Boulder International Film Festival on March 7, 2015, and was released in theaters on March 27, 2015. One year after the film, Netflix created a series based on both the novel and the film, titled mh:terribletvshows:Home Adventures with Tip & Oh. It uses hand-drawn animation and none of the original cast (except Jones) reprised their voice roles.

Plot
After a hive-minded alien race called the Boov conquer the Earth, they relocate the planet's human population -- all except for a little girl named Gratuity "Tip" Tucci (Rihanna), who's managed to hide from the aliens. When Tip meets a fugitive Boov called Oh (Jim Parsons), there's mutual distrust. However, Oh is not like his comrades; he craves friendship and fun. As their distrust fades, the pair set out together to find Tip's mother, but, unbeknown to them, the Gorg -- enemies of the Boov -- are on their route.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The main problem with the movie is that some parts have poor grasp of the source material for these following reasons:
 * 2) The characters look majorly different from the novel counterparts, though still remaining some same figure.
 * 3) In the novel, it first mainly focuses on Tip and her journey to get her mother to meet Oh (who was named J-Lo).
 * 4) Smekday and Smekland are never referred to in the movie.
 * 5) A character who was actually a really important part of the plot in the novel, as they helped Tip and Oh in their journey, doesn't even appear at all.
 * 6) The ending of the novel has the scene where Tip died when she was old. In the movie, Tip never died and the ending was changed into generic dance party, because it was deemed too dark, which is rather ridiculous and jarring, especially since some DreamWorks movies usually had their dark moments. Does it mean sounds familiar? (although the movie is actually well-received.)
 * 7) Finally, the perspective of the novel is from Tip, reading this as a 8th grade essay, which is not shown.
 * 8) Multiple unlikable and/or poorly written characters:
 * 9) Oh is a weak, annoying and unlikeable protagonist.
 * 10) *Speaking of that, this movie also (purposely) missed the opportunity to make Tip the main protagonist.
 * 11) Captain Smek is a very lame, forgettable, and weak villain, despite Steve Martin's great vocal performance.
 * 12) While Oh is unlikable, the other boovs are still very unlikable too, as their treatment is literally being mean-spirited to Oh. While it is understandable that they dislike him because he is annoying, the reason why he is like this is that they never show any care, especially since he keeps screwing up. The only justification they have is when Oh accidentally sent the invited letter to the Gorg.
 * 13) The film is way too childish due to happy go lucky tone at some points with some awful humor.
 * 14) Speaking of humor, most the "jokes" in the film are terrible, especially the gross out. For example, there is even a disgusting toilet humor joke where Oh says that the Boov species go "number three" in the bathrooms before telling Tip that the number three is dangerous, and even more he eats a urinal cake thinking that it is the blue mint, with the way he exits the bathroom licking his tongue being absolutely disgusting.
 * 15) The stuff revolving around aliens is very generic.
 * 16) Some songs play at inappropriate times, as several of the songs don't fit the scenes.
 * 17) The film can't even decide who the main villain is, as certain people act loathsome before it's Captain Smek; for example, it may be seen as the main Boovs are the antagonists as they chase after Oh.
 * 18) Plot hole: How did Smek says Oh's password are not unique, even if Oh does have a unique password in order to prevent Grog going into party?
 * 19) While the voice acting is good, Rihanna is miscasting choice as Tip, since she sounds way too old from the ages.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Good voice acting, even with all the wasted talent including from Jim Parsons, Rihanna (despite the miscast), and especially Steve Martin.
 * 2) The soundtrack by Lorne Balfe and Stargate is amazing, with awesome songs such as:
 * 3) "Towards the Sun" by Rihanna
 * 4) "Run to Me" by Clarence Coffee Jr.
 * 5) "Cannonball" by Kiesza
 * 6) "As Real as You and Me" by Rihanna
 * 7) "Red Balloon" by Charli XCX (who also played in the trailer.)
 * 8) "Dancing in the Dark" by Rihanna
 * 9) "Drop That" by Jacob Plant
 * 10) And finally, "Feel the Light" by Jennifer Lopez
 * 11) Some decent characters, such as:
 * 12) Gratuity "Tip" Tucci
 * 13) Lucy Tucci
 * 14) Pig
 * 15) The animation is very nicely crafted as to be expected since prior DreamWorks films such as Mr. Peabody & Sherman, mh:greatestmovies:How to Train Your Dragon 2, and Penguins of Madagascar also had great animation.
 * 16) Some funny moments here and there.
 * 17) *The Eiffel Tower scene is awesome and hilarious
 * 18) The concept of an alien peacefully invading earth, but a single alien who befriends with a human to find a parent, while cliche, is interesting.
 * 19) *On top of that, the plotline regarding Tip and her mother Lucy is decently written.

Reception
Home received mixed reviews from critics, but received positive reviews from audiences. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a critic score of 52% based on reviews from 139 critics, and an audience score of 64% based on over 50,000 ratings. The website's consensus reads: "Colorful, silly, and utterly benign, Home is a passable diversion, but there's no shortage of superior animated alternatives.". On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating, the film has a score of 55 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews", and an audience score of 7.1/10. On mh:freshwebsites:IMDb, the film has a score of 6.6/10. On Letterboxd, it has a 2.7/5 based on 97 fans.

Box office
Compared to the previous DreamWorks movies, with the exception of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Home grossed $177.4 million in North America and has grossed $208.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $386 million, making it box office success. Its production cost was $135 million, with a similar sum spent for prints and advertising (P&A). Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $29.12 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.

Home opened in the U.S. and Canada simultaneously with the comedy Get Hard on March 27, 2015. Though the latter earned higher in its Thursday late-night run, estimates were showing that Home was heading to No. 1 in its opening weekend. It scored one of the biggest opening days for a DreamWorks Animation non-sequel ever with $15.6 million, behind Kung Fu Panda ($20 million) and Monsters vs. Aliens ($16.75 million). Home debuted at the top of the box office, with $52.1 million, which exceeded predictions of a $30 million to $35 million opening and was also DreamWorks Animation's best opening since the $60.3 million debut of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Outside North America, Home was released in 10 countries on March 20, 2015, a week ahead of its U.S. premiere. It earned $20.1 million, coming in third place at the international box office behind Cinderella and The Divergent Series: Insurgent. The following weekend, it expanded to 55 additional countries and grossed a total of $24 million from 11,250 screens in 64 countries. Its largest openings occurred in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($9.12 million), Russia ($5.17 million), Mexico ($3 million), Brazil ($2.3 million), Australia ($2.42 million), and Spain ($2.24 million).

Videos
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Trivia

 * This was the first time only one DreamWorks movie was released in a year since mh:greatestmovies:Monsters vs. Aliens.
 * The movie tile was originally called Happy Smekday!.
 * The film was promoted with the release of a four-minute short film titled Almost Home, which was shown in theaters before DreamWorks Animation's Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Blue Sky Studios' Rio 2 in 2014.
 * Originally November 26, 2014, the film's release date was pushed back to March 27, 2015, switching places with DreamWorks Animation's film Penguins of Madagascar. Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation's CEO, reasoned that Penguins, coming from one of DWA's most successful franchises, would more easily stand out during Thanksgiving time, while Home would try to take advantage of the less competitive spring release window, and repeat successful spring launches of some of DWA's original films, including The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon.
 * Both movies were scored by Lorne Balfe.
 * According to director Tim Johnson, Lopez had known about the book because of the character who used her nickname J.Lo, which helped him attract her to take a voice role in the film. However, despite the actress being "into the idea the alien would be named after her," legal concerns involving trademarks and licensing prompted the filmmakers to rename the character Oh.
 * It marks Jennifer Lopez's second DreamWorks Animation film, after Antz.