A bright, kid-friendly sci-fi road trip with a sweet outsider-buddy core and a few genuinely charming ideas, but it’s also uneven, over-simplified, and often feels like it’s chasing cuteness over wit. If you want easygoing animated comfort food, it works; if you want sharp DreamWorks storytelling, it’s a miss.
26% ★☆☆☆☆ (126,332)
Home
Where to watch: Netflix
Movie · Fantasy · Comedy · PG
2015 · 1h 34m · ★ 26% (126K)
Earth just got a little stranger.
Director: Tim Johnson
Starring: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin
Overview
When Earth is taken over by the overly-confident Boov, an alien race in search of a new place to call home, all humans are promptly relocated, while all Boov get busy reorganizing the planet. But when one resourceful girl, Tip, manages to avoid capture, she finds herself the accidental accomplice of a banished Boov named Oh. The two fugitives realize there’s a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they embark on the road trip of a lifetime.
Director
Tim Johnson
Production
DreamWorks Animation
Cast
Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Matt Jones, Brian Stepanek, April Lawrence, Lisa Stewart, Stephen Kearin, April Winchell
Where to watch
Netflix
Curator Review
Verdict
A bright, kid-friendly sci-fi road trip with a sweet outsider-buddy core and a few genuinely charming ideas, but it’s also uneven, over-simplified, and often feels like it’s chasing cuteness over wit. If you want easygoing animated comfort food, it works; if you want sharp DreamWorks storytelling, it’s a miss.
Best for
families with younger kids
viewers who like lightweight sci-fi adventure
fans of odd-couple buddy stories
people in the mood for colorful, low-stakes animation
Skip if
you want top-tier DreamWorks writing
you’re allergic to broad comedy and cutesy tone
you prefer sharper satire or more emotionally layered animation
you dislike movies that feel formulaic or overfamiliar
Overview
Home is one of those animated studio movies that lives or dies on whether its sweetness lands for you. The premise has real charm: an anxious, well-meaning alien and a resourceful human kid making an accidental friendship while the world gets rearranged around them. That road-trip structure gives the movie a pleasant momentum, and the design palette is playful and easy to enjoy.
Worth noting
The problem is that the movie often settles for being agreeable instead of inventive. The humor can be broad, the emotional beats are telegraphed, and the story rarely digs as deep as it could into displacement, belonging, or found family. It has enough energy to stay watchable, but not enough bite or surprise to feel essential.
Bottom line
Still, there’s a sincere warmth to it, and the voice cast helps sell the odd-couple dynamic. For younger viewers, or anyone who wants a colorful, low-pressure animated adventure, it can be a perfectly decent watch. For everyone else, it’s more likely to be remembered as pleasant than memorable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
issy 🥝 · 3978 likes
The Home fandom is dying. Repost if you’re a true Homie
Alex IHE (1.5★) · 1702 likes
What's up everybody, it's me, the biggest Dreamworks Animation fan in the world. Home (aside from Trolls which I will be watching imminently) is one of the only Dreamworks films I had never seen. And honestly I kind of wish I hadn't bothered. I guess it really is surprising considering how epic and funny Jim Parsons is on the Bang Bing Therum on television, alongside how much I enjoy Rihanna and her wicked beats. The story here is about a… more
madie (3.5★) · 1675 likes
i am a home (2015) apologist idc i love this movie fuck yall
James (Schaffrillas) (2.5★) · 1365 likes
I'm impressed, this wasn't terrible! It also wasn't good!