The last couple of years I’ve seen my share of children’s movies. As I’ve stated before on this site and elsewhere, my favs are probably the Toy Story Series and the Despicable Me movies. And while I’ve taken my son to a number of other more recent films, they’ve never been as great as the others. Well, today I took the kids to one that at least comes close.
Accompanied by my son and two nephews I attended a matinee showing (at the Carmike 14) of the new Movie “Home.” It was a very creative show driven by the great performance of Jim Parsons (aka Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory fame). The story involves a race of alien cowards who colonize the planet while hiding from another aggressive alien race. When the new resident misfit accidentally reveals the location of the new home planet he’s forced to take up with a human teenage girl who happens to be seeking her mother who was displaced when the aliens first arrived.
The movie is pretty well conceived and really quite funny. There are periods where the story drags a bit, particularly during some of the more emotional moments. There’s a lot mother daughter themes which are positive if a bit difficult for males to relate to directly. But overall the story is fun, amusing and kept the attention of my active little guys, which is no small achievement. For my part I enjoyed the film as well. The musical score has great potential to annoy but Parson’s performance made up for any discomfort I felt during the musical numbers.
The other positive is that there’s nothing in the show that would be potentially problematic for parents of small children. There’s nothing too frightening and there isn’t any thinly veiled adult humor. There is a little bathroom humor but not too much. It was just sufficient to delight little boys in my care.