"Home" First Look - Sort Of...

A113 Animation got some leaked material for the third 2014 release from DreamWorks Animation, Home.

Here's two rather blurry stills that show off the general look that the studio is going for... (I'm not sure where these actually came from. Expo? Press event?)

That logo is not what I was expecting, but you do get the feel for the futuristic setting with the hovering cars. A bit on the William Joyce side, maybe? It kind of reminds me of the art direction for Meet The Robinsons. The bubbles don't help either.

And here we have our two main characters...

I've been very much on the fence about this film. I have no doubt that it may end up being a solid film when all is said and done, given DreamWorks' recent films (except The Croods, I didn't find that film to be good), but I'm just so iffy on it. Between the stunt casting (Rihanna, really?), the title change and the adorable sci-fi-tinged look of it, I'm not so sure about it. The plot from the book it's based on, Adam Rex's The True Meaning of Smekday, does sound good - though it seems like a little bit has been changed given the current plot synopsis.

"An overly optimistic alien race named Boov, and its leader, Captain Smek, invades Earth to hide from their mortal enemy and make it a new home. Convinced they are doing a favour, they begin to relocate the human race, but one resourceful girl, Tip, manages to avoid capture. When on the run, she is accompanied with a banished Boov, named Oh, who accidentally notified the enemies of his whereabouts."

Jennifer Lopez and Steve Martin have also been added to the cast, coincidentally the main Boov character was named "JLo" in the book. They changed his name to just "Oh", which was pretty smart if you ask me, considering that JLo herself is now part of the cast. It would've been pretty lame to have the alien's name be JLo with JLo herself providing a voice for someone else. That just would've elicited a "Really?" reaction. Anyways, Lopez will be portraying Tip's mother and Martin will be voicing Captain Smek.

Other than that, I'm not sure if I like the look just yet... But those stills probably say nothing about the art direction of the whole thing. I'm more interested in seeing more of the Boov, their enemies, perhaps their home planet and other things. For now, the film looks like it's visually emulating the likes of Meet The Robinsons and films like Planet 51 and Escape from Planet Earth. William Jardine also pointed out the Planet 51 similarities on his blog.

Oh, and DreamWorks (or Fox)... Whatever you do, just change that damn title! I'm more than tired of this "vague, bland and short" title trend. It didn't work for Epic, it's not going to work for this. Happy Smekday!, even though that was not a great title by any stretch, at least gives you some idea of what this film is about and gives it a little identity.

Ugh, stop with this bad title business already...

What's your take on the film itself? What did you think of the stills? What do you think of the title? Sound off below!