Home Parent Guide

Children’s movies are notorious for having heavy-handed messages aimed at their young audiences. In the case of Home it’s all about accepting yourself, flaws and all, and learning to live with people that are different from you. I wouldn’t have a problem with either of those missives if I didn’t feel like they were being forced upon me by a group of plundering extraterrestrials that have taken over Earth.

The Boov are a group of pint-sized aliens that change color more often than chameleons, only their rainbow range is triggered by a rollercoaster of emotions. After being threatened by another species, the frightful and fearsome Grog, the Boov abandoned their own planet. And it appears the cowardly lot has been chased around the galaxy ever since. Rather than trying to resolve their differences, the Boov hightail it out of Dodge for another location every time they sniff even a whiff of trouble. Now the Boov, who have worse diction than Jar Jar Binks, storm Earth. First they suck up all the people and relocate them to an undisclosed location (where they will live in manufactured suburbs complete with amusement parks and fast food joints) and then the Boov move into humans’ homes.

Oh (voice of Jim Parsons) is one of those aliens who settles into in a recently evacuated high-rise apartment. He decides to embrace the human tradition of a house warming party and sends an email to everyone in the universe, including, by mistake, the Grog. Putting the Boov’s mortal enemy on the invite list is the latest slip-up in a long streak of blunders that has put Oh on the bad list. And this time the Boovs’ leader, Captain Smek (voice of Steve Martin), can’t overlook the gaffe. So he puts out an all-points bulletin calling for Oh’s arrest.

While on the run, Oh stumbles upon Tip (voice of Rihanna), a young girl who managed to avoid being abducted by the alien machines. This gutsy, recent immigrant to America and her pet cat have commandeered the family car and are on a mission to find her missing mother (voice of Jennifer Lopez). Not surprisingly (if you’ve seen the trailer) Tip and Oh join forces in an effort to avoid capture and track down the parent. Ultimately, the purpose of this adventure, which includes plenty of non-graphic cartoon-style violence, is to allow the two misfits to learn more about one another and become friends.

Yet along with the story’s gibberish and potty jokes, the aliens’ captain engages in plenty of ridiculously silly antics, like wearing orange peels on his feet and a barbeque on his head. The Boov, on the other hand, are a mindless bunch of conformists who only act or think when ordered to by the Captain.

I can sense fingers poised over keyboards right now telling me to “lighten up, it’s only a children’s movie.” But I think kids deserve better.

The call for tolerance has become increasingly pervasive and, in some cases, even virulent in our society. However real tolerance isn’t something that can be legislated or hammered into a person. It comes from the heart when people learn to truly value the worth of others. I’m not sure if a 94-minute children’s movie about multi-legged extraterrestrials that oust an entire population of passive humans out of their homes is the best way to engender that lesson. Rather I have to wonder if tolerance and acceptance could be better taught by adults who are kind to the grocery clerk, polite to the bus driver, helpful to a neighbor and less consumed with road rage.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.