Home is a so-so animated adventure about a friendly alien invasion

REVIEW: Home opens with what must be the most, swift painless and happy-go-lucky alien invasion in movie history.

Home: A so-so animated adventure

Home (PG)

Director: Tim Johnson (Over the Hedge)

Starring: the voices of Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Matt Jones.

Rating : **1/2

Here to stay, though soon forgotten

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Home opens with what must be the most, swift painless and happy-go-lucky alien invasion in movie history.

A cute interplanetary species known as the Boov — imagine the minions from Despicable Me, only with a better wardrobe and a proper vocab — has been forced to flee their planet.

The entire human race has been sucked up through a tube, and then spat out in the Australian outback.

That’s right: The Boov have repurposed our Red Centre as a global refugee camp. (Is this is some kind of subversive swipe at Australia’s controversial track record as a relocation destination?)

New animated film ... the animated movie Home features a cast of celebrity voices.

In spite of its audacious (and kind of disturbing) opening, the real story to be told by Home is as plain and formulaic as animation gets these days.

An outgoing, freethinking Boov named Oh (voiced by Jim Parsons from TV’s Big Bang Theory) meets Tip (Rihanna, who of course is all over the Home soundtrack as well), the only human kid left in the world who didn’t get rounded up and sent down under.

Once Oh gifts Tip a flying car — powered by frozen soft drink — the pair take to the skies and go in search of Tip’s missing mum.

Overall, a so-so animated adventure for the younger set, more likely to be enjoyed by primary schoolers than their elder siblings.

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Originally published as Home is a so-so animated adventure about a friendly alien invasion