HOME Review: Dreamworks is Underrated

Walking into breakfast yesterday, Sister#2 announced news of her discovery fact that Dreamworks, only earlier this year, reduced their workforce by 500 people by shutting down an entire studio in California, just as we had planned on watching the recently-released animated film Home. This was devastating to her: a future animator, and with Dreamworks one of the leading companies in animation, we had always enjoyed the movies and continued to anticipate the release of each one, and going so far to challenge typical Disney-goers in claiming that she enjoys Dreamworks more than Disney (in some respects) when it comes to animated films.

To an extent I agree with her; while Disney movies include a mix of vivid fantasies, light-hearted entertainment and the bawl-inducing family moments it's difficult to ignore how some of the better Dreamworks films have captured magic Disney can overlook. Clearly some Dreamworks films could have used a little work - take Peabody and Sherman. It had an ending so underdeveloped it seemed they had based its entire production with the hope the beginning would hold it up, the conclusion so underwhelming and unsatisfying that it almost outplayed the intelligence in a bulk of the film. But some Dreamworks films manage to capture human nature in such a way that it almost transcends satire, such as Over The Hedge. Released in 2006, it had been one of my favourite films of all time through its portrayals of gluttony and how food has become more of a form of art, entertainment, or pleasure than a basic survival necessity through the eyes of animals who only wished to gather sufficient food to keep them alive...

In some ways I consider this to be so as Dreamworks, compared to Disney, has less of a pressure to retain a certain political correctness to avoid offending people over certain matters, such as the (continued) debate over race in Disney; or the fact that Dreamworks' underdog position has resulted in the studio requiring somewhat more effort to achieve the same popularity of certain Disney films (need I mention Frozen?). In this way Dreamworks requires a little more energy to strive for attention, and sometimes produces films that should have received more praise than was given.

Let's consider How to Train Your Dragon. The series (so far) has been incredible. There are very rare occurrences in which the sequel is equally as good as the original movie to the point that the better film is arguable (some say the second - but that could be due to the improved animation itself, and let's admit, a very handsome Hiccup).  Or The Croods for its gorgeous colour scheme, and yet another movie that manages to mock some very human ways of thought by comparing it to a primitive state of mind, and yet overshadowed by the highly underdeveloped film and new big franchise known as Frozen, released about half a year later, with multiple articles explaining exactly what we all thought.

Home is one of the better Dreamworks films. Although somewhat predictable with its plot it is still a continuous stream of fun and humour, and again manages to encompass a lot of human nature within the film. Through the perspective of some unknowing Boov, the movie ridicules human concepts by placing them parallel to the aliens' culture and yet, in some ways, reveals the similarities and the ways that everyone desires affection.

The movie is comprised of a small all-star cast of voice actors. Oh, a Boov, is cute and honest, a protagonist with good intentions and wears his heart on his sleeve, his social ineptness mirrored by the familiar voice of Jim Parsons in a very Sheldon Cooper way. Similarly, Gratuity Tucci, voiced by Rihanna, is expressive with fierce determination. She is feisty and fair, helping Oh to understand the human culture in comparison to that of the Boov's. With Steve Martin as Smek, Captain of the Boov, the result is a sort of humour that can be enjoyed by anyone at any age. The film is overall extremely entertaining, as well as unexpectedly touching, and despite the predictability of the main plot, foregoes several tropes and movie clichés which makes it particularly more adorable.

I rate it a good 19/23. Obviously not perfect, there is just too much cuteness and enlightening emotional rollercoaster-ing to be another movie that can be undermined. It's one of my new favourites.