Honestly, if you missed the animated movie Home when it dropped in 2015, you aren't alone. It kind of got lost in the shuffle of big-budget sequels and the looming shadow of Inside Out. But here’s the thing: it’s actually a weirdly bold piece of science fiction that tackles colonialism, loneliness, and the absolute absurdity of human culture through the eyes of a purple alien who can’t stop making mistakes.
It’s easy to look at Oh, our protagonist, and see a toy-selling mascot. But look closer.
The movie, directed by Tim Johnson and based on Adam Rex’s quirky book The True Meaning of Smekday, does something most "kid movies" are too scared to do. It starts with an invasion. A literal, planet-wide displacement of the human race. And yet, it stays vibrant. It’s a neon-soaked road trip across a post-occupation Earth that feels surprisingly grounded because of its emotional core: Tip Tucci.
The Tip and Oh Dynamic Is Why Home Works
Most animated duos are built on a "grumpy vs. sunshine" trope. In the animated movie Home, the dynamic is way more fractured. Tip, voiced by Rihanna, isn’t just a sassy kid; she’s a displaced person looking for her mother. She’s traumatized. She’s angry.
Then you have Oh.
Jim Parsons brings this frantic, grammatically broken energy to the character that should be annoying but ends up being heartbreaking. Oh is an outcast among outcasts. The Boov, his race, are defined by their cowardice. They run. They hide. They value the group over the individual to the point of total erasure.
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When Oh accidentally sends an invitation to his "warming-up party" to the entire galaxy—including the Boov's mortal enemies, the Gorg—he becomes a fugitive. This sets up the central conflict, but the real meat of the story is in the car. The Slushious.
It's a flying car powered by frozen carbonated beverages. It sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But as they fly over a desolate but beautiful world, the movie asks a heavy question: What makes a place a home? Is it the GPS coordinates, or is it the person you're willing to change your entire nature for?
The Music Wasn't Just a Soundtrack, It Was an Event
We have to talk about the music. Usually, a studio hires a pop star to voice a character and then slaps one of their songs over the credits. DreamWorks went the opposite direction. They let Rihanna curate a concept album.
"Towards the Sun" and "Dancing in the Dark" aren't just background noise. They drive the narrative. The heavy bass and ethereal synths give the animated movie Home a distinct identity that separates it from the orchestral scores of Disney or the frantic pop-covers of Illumination. It feels like a long-form music video at times, especially during the sequence where the Boov are rearranging Earth's gravity to suit their needs.
Why the Boov Are Actually Terrifying (In a Cute Way)
If you step back and look at the Boov’s philosophy, it’s a scathing critique of mindless conformity. Captain Smek, voiced by Steve Martin with a delightful amount of ego, is a dictator. He’s a bumbling, "shushing" dictator, but a dictator nonetheless.
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The Boov arrive on Earth, decide humans are "simple," and forcibly relocate them to "Human Town" in Australia. They think they’re being helpful. They call it "liberating." It’s a very pointed allegory for historical colonization, packaged in bright colors and slapstick humor.
- The Boov take what they want because they can.
- They rename things they don't understand.
- They view any deviation from the norm as a "mistake."
Oh is the "Master of Mistakes." In Boov culture, that’s a death sentence. But for Tip, it’s what makes him human. Or, well, human-adjacent.
The way the Boov change colors based on their emotions is a brilliant visual shorthand. It’s a literal biological trait that they try to suppress. Being yellow is afraid. Red is angry. Blue is sad. Purple is the neutral, "safe" state. By the end of the animated movie Home, we see a spectrum of colors that the Boov were never allowed to express before. It’s a visual representation of emotional liberation.
The Gorg Twist and the Cycle of Misunderstanding
Without spoiling the entire finale for the three people who haven't seen it, the "villain" of the movie, the Gorg, isn't what they seem.
The Boov spent generations running from the "Great Destroyer." They built their entire culture around fear of this one entity. But the reveal—that the Gorg was simply trying to recover something the Boov had stolen—flips the script. It turns a war movie into a story about a massive, intergalactic misunderstanding.
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It suggests that most "monsters" are just parents, or survivors, or people we haven't bothered to listen to yet. That’s a massive lesson for a movie where a cat named Pig is a major supporting character.
How Home Impacted the Industry
While it wasn't a Shrek-sized hit, Home was a massive win for representation. Tip was one of the first Black protagonists in a major 3D animated feature from a top-tier studio. Her hair, her skin tone, and her relationship with her mother (voiced by Jennifer Lopez) were handled with a level of care that felt fresh.
It proved that a sci-fi adventure led by a young girl of color could thrive at the box office. The movie pulled in over $380 million worldwide. It spawned a Netflix series, Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh, which leaned even harder into the 2D psychedelic aesthetic.
Actionable Takeaways for Movie Night
If you’re planning to revisit the animated movie Home or watch it for the first time, keep these things in mind to get the most out of it:
- Watch the background details. The way the Boov interact with human objects—using toilets as drinking fountains or bicycles as hats—is a masterclass in visual storytelling and world-building.
- Listen to the lyrics. The Rihanna-led soundtrack actually mirrors Tip’s emotional journey from isolation to belonging.
- Compare it to the book. If you have kids (or just like reading), check out The True Meaning of Smekday. It’s much more cynical and satirical than the movie, providing a fascinating "alternate version" of the story.
- Notice the color theory. Pay attention to when Oh changes color. He often turns green (lying) or orange (excited) long before he realizes he’s feeling those things.
The animated movie Home is more than just a colorful distraction. It’s a story about the courage it takes to be "wrong" in a world that demands you be "right." It’s about the fact that a home isn't a place you find; it’s a place you build, usually with the people you least expected to meet.
Next time you’re scrolling through a streaming service looking for something that feels both cozy and surprisingly deep, give the Boov a chance. Just don't let Oh handle the party invitations.
The best way to experience the film's legacy today is to track down the "Making of" features which detail how the animators developed the Boov's unique skin-shading technology. It was quite a leap for 2015, using a complex subsurface scattering technique to make their glow feel organic rather than plastic. Understanding the tech makes the emotional shifts in the characters even more impressive.