SNAPSHOT
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 (Rihanna, who also contributes a song) manages to avoid capture, she finds herself the accidental accomplice of a banished Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons). The two fugitives realize there’s a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they embark on the road trip of a lifetime. (synopsis via Coming Soon)
I think I have died and gone to animation heaven.
And it’s name is HOME, Dreamworks’ March 2015 release, which is packed full of so much quirky, quip-laden home that is genuinely ROFL funny that you will likely find yourself laughing so hard that people will look strangely at you on public transport, in the office or at home (where let’s face it, getting looked at strangely is part and parcel of living) … or suggest you get medication stat.
Do not listen to them for what you are experiencing is utterly sublime enjoyment of a parody of the archetypal alien invasion movie so gloriously, loopily over the top that you will still be chortling to yourself when the next gag rolls around.
Both the just-released official first trailer – thanks to my awesome Triberr tribe mate Two Kids and a Coupon for alerting me to this gem; the bill for cleaning the clothes I have spilled food onto mid-laugh is on its way! – and the introduction to the film called Almost Home, released in March this year are so cleverly and joyously written that you can’t help but smile then giggle then laugh like a freakin’ loon on helium.
It’s not surprising that it’s so crazy funny since it is based on Alan Rex’s equally hilarious book The True Meaning of Smekday, which takes the traditional idea of aliens coming to take our real estate thank you very much, and turns it on its heads to greatly comical effect.
Directed by Tim Johnson (Over the Hedge), and and featuring the voices of Jim Parsons as the Boov outcast Oh (the origin of his name is crack-you-up funny all by itself), Rihanna as Tip, and Steve Martin as the inept but vainglorious Captain Smek, HOME, on trailers alone, looks to be everything you could want in an inspired, clever animated movie.
It will likely have both adults and children laughing in equal measure, all of whom will likely want to break out into silly grins and giggles at the very remembrance of the film, so if you see them on a bus or walking on the street, be kind to them for they have been Boov’d.
HOME opens in USA March 2, 2015.
The search for a new home is captured perfectly in the Almost Home featurette where the Boov, after fleeing form planets with laser squids and carnivorous unicorns, comes across the only apparently non-threatening planet in the solar system – Earth (“Terrible name; sounds like I have a hairball.”)