First rule of animated kids’ movies: Can we get a toy out of it? In this respect, anyway, DreamWorks’ “Home” is a winner: Its aliens, the Boov, are a roundish, purplish species with stubby tentacles, big eyes and a compulsion to run away (“If probability for success falls below 50 percent, Boov give up!”).
A socially awkward Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons) is thrilled when his people relocate to Earth in their never-ending quest to hide from an enemy called the Gorg. In a plot that seems more suited to horror than kiddie fare, they suck up Earth’s population and deposit it in the Australian desert, renaming it “Happy Humantown.”
But one girl named Tip (Rihanna) is left behind, and she crosses paths with Oh, who’s in trouble after accidentally hitting “send all” on his housewarming-party invite — thus alerting their enemies to the Boov’s whereabouts.
It’s refreshing to see a nonwhite lead, and the husky-voiced pop singer is likable as a brave-hearted kid searching for her mother. But man, is there a lot of Rihanna in this movie: She also provides what seems like the entirety of the film’s soundtrack, making it feel like a vanity project (is “vanimation” a thing?).
Other celebs onboard are Steve Martin, getting back to his goofy roots as the fear-mongering Boov leader Captain Smek, and Jennifer Lopez, who has about three lines as Tip’s mom, Lucy (her presence seems mostly a shout-out to fans of the book upon which “Home” is based, Adam Rex’s “The True Meaning of Smekday,” where the “Oh” character is named J.Lo).
There’s fun to be had when Martin or Parsons is allowed to ham it up, but director Tim Johnson (“Over the Hedge”) relies too heavily on generic chase set pieces — and the occasional heart-to-heart set to a ballad, which no children at my screening seemed remotely interested in — as Oh and Tip make their way around the globe. Like the timorous Boov, “Home” has little interest in risk-taking.