Is Dreamworks' HOME on Colonialism?
CONTAINS SPOILERS. To read my review, follow this link.
Knowing very little about history, I am not the best candidate to be speaking on such a dire topic, especially when my background knowledge extends mostly from Tumblr, whose resources and evidence few, and beliefs contradictory between two adjacent posts. However, it can hardly be overlooked that Dreamworks' new movie Home has serious ties to European colonialism through the invasion of the planet earth by the alien species called the Boov, and despite it being very cute, highly entertaining, and hilarious animated film (for children! might I add), my young cynicism brought about by following various blogs on Tumblr has given rise to a new awareness of topics involving equality, creating a sort of filter as I watched the movie.
Certainly I still enjoyed it. With such an all-star cast and the typical forms of amusement brought by a children's film it would be a total lie to say that even a Tumblr-induced cynicism-filter prevented me from absolutely loving the film, but the ways in which it was presented has me asking whether or not the plot is based on European colonialism.
Dreamworks already has movies which heavily satirise human nature - Over The Hedge is a prime example of gluttony, and The Croods of the simplicity of humans, but Home takes this a little further. Originally based on a children's book titled The True Meaning Of Smekday, the excerpt seems a little less obvious with themes of colonialism, but it can't be entirely ignored what with how the movie plays heavily on the invasion of the Boov and displacement of humans as previous tenants. And how, you may ask? Well, I'd have thought it was very, very obvious.
1. Invading a previously inhabited PLANET.
This transcends entirely European colonisation of America and India, but could be easily compared. Entirely disregarding the entire population of several billion humans on the planet, the Boov remove forcefully humans from apartments and relocate them to Australia**, where they are conveniently away from the main population of the Boov, and immediately allocate the housing between each other. The humans are then expected to live out normal lives without questioning the Boov (there is, of course, uproar, but this the Boov have fixed by placing Ask-a-Boov desks within the regions of human confinement). At least there were some good intentions in assigning each family their own white-picket-fence house within the human confined spaces.
**This I find somewhat amusing, as Australia was primarily established as a means of relocating convicts by the British Government. Besides the vast amount of space available in the country, as a Kiwi I can't help but think that they meant this as a repeat of reverting Australia to its original purpose of housing inmates (or at least in some areas).
2. "Dehumanisation" of humans (and Gorg[s]).
In all honesty, there isn't really a better word of describing this. The Boov are complex in their emotions - similarly or perhaps even less so than humans, as demonstrated by Oh's confusion with many of Tip's emotional retaliations due to his actions. Even then, prior to the Boov's invasion of the earth there were pamphlets distributed on four human emotions that the Boov were informed to take note of, followed by the description that humans were "simple and backward". There is also the demonisation of the Gorg(s) due to a misunderstanding on the part of Captain Smek of the Boov, and with no attempt at reconciliation he ignorantly refuses to settle it in a civilised way in order to bring peace due to fear, pride, and cowardice. This deals with a refusal to acknowledge that other beings have equally complex emotions, and with continued indoctrination in order to remain wary of possible threats, however small, the Boov learned to recognise everything as linear yet potentially dangerous. It makes it somewhat akin to demonisation of black people, which brings up the point of whether there's a particular reason that the main human involved is black? Using her to draw light to the fact that humans do indeed have emotions as complex as the Boov contrary to their initial beliefs, and the ongoing issue of racial profiling (amongst other things), makes me think, yes, yes there is.
3. Removal of culture and resources.
The Boov in the movie are less concerned with culturally assimilating humans to live alongside them than they are with almost completely removing them from their concerns, as proven by their relocation to Australian deserts. However, their disregard of human resources, basic necessities, and facilities result in their disposal of toilets etc., and their misuse of many human inventions, though hilarious, demonstrates their ignorance of human culture. This is also satirical of human nature; goodness knows how much destruction we've caused through failure to foresee too far in the future despite any good intentions. At the very least they have the decency to learn a human language (English), despite errors in syntax and grammar.
As much of a kid's movie Home appears to be there seems to be, in the end, some allusion to more dire ideas: am I reading too much into it? I think there are a little too many parallels with colonialism to suggest otherwise.
Knowing very little about history, I am not the best candidate to be speaking on such a dire topic, especially when my background knowledge extends mostly from Tumblr, whose resources and evidence few, and beliefs contradictory between two adjacent posts. However, it can hardly be overlooked that Dreamworks' new movie Home has serious ties to European colonialism through the invasion of the planet earth by the alien species called the Boov, and despite it being very cute, highly entertaining, and hilarious animated film (for children! might I add), my young cynicism brought about by following various blogs on Tumblr has given rise to a new awareness of topics involving equality, creating a sort of filter as I watched the movie.
Certainly I still enjoyed it. With such an all-star cast and the typical forms of amusement brought by a children's film it would be a total lie to say that even a Tumblr-induced cynicism-filter prevented me from absolutely loving the film, but the ways in which it was presented has me asking whether or not the plot is based on European colonialism.
Dreamworks already has movies which heavily satirise human nature - Over The Hedge is a prime example of gluttony, and The Croods of the simplicity of humans, but Home takes this a little further. Originally based on a children's book titled The True Meaning Of Smekday, the excerpt seems a little less obvious with themes of colonialism, but it can't be entirely ignored what with how the movie plays heavily on the invasion of the Boov and displacement of humans as previous tenants. And how, you may ask? Well, I'd have thought it was very, very obvious.
1. Invading a previously inhabited PLANET.
This transcends entirely European colonisation of America and India, but could be easily compared. Entirely disregarding the entire population of several billion humans on the planet, the Boov remove forcefully humans from apartments and relocate them to Australia**, where they are conveniently away from the main population of the Boov, and immediately allocate the housing between each other. The humans are then expected to live out normal lives without questioning the Boov (there is, of course, uproar, but this the Boov have fixed by placing Ask-a-Boov desks within the regions of human confinement). At least there were some good intentions in assigning each family their own white-picket-fence house within the human confined spaces.
**This I find somewhat amusing, as Australia was primarily established as a means of relocating convicts by the British Government. Besides the vast amount of space available in the country, as a Kiwi I can't help but think that they meant this as a repeat of reverting Australia to its original purpose of housing inmates (or at least in some areas).
2. "Dehumanisation" of humans (and Gorg[s]).
In all honesty, there isn't really a better word of describing this. The Boov are complex in their emotions - similarly or perhaps even less so than humans, as demonstrated by Oh's confusion with many of Tip's emotional retaliations due to his actions. Even then, prior to the Boov's invasion of the earth there were pamphlets distributed on four human emotions that the Boov were informed to take note of, followed by the description that humans were "simple and backward". There is also the demonisation of the Gorg(s) due to a misunderstanding on the part of Captain Smek of the Boov, and with no attempt at reconciliation he ignorantly refuses to settle it in a civilised way in order to bring peace due to fear, pride, and cowardice. This deals with a refusal to acknowledge that other beings have equally complex emotions, and with continued indoctrination in order to remain wary of possible threats, however small, the Boov learned to recognise everything as linear yet potentially dangerous. It makes it somewhat akin to demonisation of black people, which brings up the point of whether there's a particular reason that the main human involved is black? Using her to draw light to the fact that humans do indeed have emotions as complex as the Boov contrary to their initial beliefs, and the ongoing issue of racial profiling (amongst other things), makes me think, yes, yes there is.
3. Removal of culture and resources.
The Boov in the movie are less concerned with culturally assimilating humans to live alongside them than they are with almost completely removing them from their concerns, as proven by their relocation to Australian deserts. However, their disregard of human resources, basic necessities, and facilities result in their disposal of toilets etc., and their misuse of many human inventions, though hilarious, demonstrates their ignorance of human culture. This is also satirical of human nature; goodness knows how much destruction we've caused through failure to foresee too far in the future despite any good intentions. At the very least they have the decency to learn a human language (English), despite errors in syntax and grammar.
As much of a kid's movie Home appears to be there seems to be, in the end, some allusion to more dire ideas: am I reading too much into it? I think there are a little too many parallels with colonialism to suggest otherwise.
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