Review: Home

For a while there, Big Bang Theory was the most popular sitcom on TV and its star, Jim Parsons, the biggest thing going. Although I've never seen the show, I don't doubt that he's good in it. (He's won a boatload of Emmys and was excellent in a serious role in HBO's The Normal Heart.)

But here's the thing: I don't like his voice. It's nasal and a bit whiny and—to my ears at least—grating. And since he's the voice of the lead character in Home, playing an outcast among the alien Boov race named "Oh", this proves to be a bit of a problem.

Parsons is not done any favors by the script, which peppers Boov-speak with arbitrary malaprops, that are supposed to be cute. "Can I come into the out now?" Oh says, when he's trapped in a freezer. "I am saying the sorry to you," he laments later.(The roly-poly Boovs are sort of conceived as a cross between The Minions in Despicable Me and Yoda, I guess—but at least Yoda's inverted speak had an internal logic.)

Funnily enough, it's an acting neophyte, R&B star Rihanna, who has a pleasing and natural voice for animation—she comes across as hip, cute, and friendly.

Here's the plot: The Boovs, a cowardly people, are perpetually on the run from their enemies, the monstrous Gorg. Every time the Gorg bears down, the Boovs find a new planet to inhabit—in this case, earth—first relocating all the residents to a remote location. (Steve Martin does old school Steve Martin as Captain Smek, the Boov's self-aggrandizing leader.) But since feisty earthling Tip hid under her cat (named Pig), she was left behind in the relocation and now she's desperately trying to reunite with her mother (voiced by Jennifer Lopez). Meanwhile, Oh, a happy-go-lucky type among a race of joyless worker drones, is a fugitive, having possibly tipped off the Gorg to the Boovs's new whereabouts. So Tip and Oh team up—traversing the earth in a flying car powered by slushies—with Tip hoping to find her mother, and Oh hoping to avert capture.

Which leads to my next big problem with the film: Why on earth did they give it such a generic title? Home, as such, is barely a concept in the film. Oh isn't trying to get back to his home planet. Tip doesn't care about "home", she just wants to reunite with her mother. Title-wise, The Boov is just sitting there, ripe for the taking! "Don't be such a Boov," Tip says at one point, a catchphrase waiting to happen. "Shake your Boov thing!" she trills later. I mean . . . Dreamworks title people: You had ONE job!

Anyway, the film has a few moments of charm, the occasional laugh, and a heartwarming message about friendship and courage, plus the 3D is pretty sweet (worth the extra 4 bucks if your tiny overlords force you to see it) so I can't hate on it too hard. But my heart goes out to moms and dads across America when this thing comes out on DVD. Jim Parsons' voice will be in your life. Every day. Long after Big Bang Theory is cancelled, his Oh will still be with you, mangling the English language and working your last nerve.