Movie Monday

Movie Monday!

I'm telling you right now that I saw one of this year's best animated films! It was all about emotions...

No... not that one.

I'm talking about Home, Dreamworks Animation's newest film based off the novel The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex.

Now first things first... this an AWFUL adaptation. It says 'based on'... but it should really say 'loosely inspired by'. In my mind this compares with The Jungle Book in terms of adaptation faithfulness. But... here's my little secret:

I liked the movie better than the book.

The horror!

I read the book a couple months ago and gave it a solid 'meh'. I wasn't much interested in the film until I found myself with a couple free days to myself, a theatre next door, and lots of other movies I cared even less about.

Anyhow, how does the film compare?

In the book the main aliens look something like this:

Which on film would really encourage this response:

Dreamworks gives us the same basic idea but a lot less terrifying:

The book was a war book, that's really the only way to describe it. Dark, violent, and scary. The film is more of a road trip movie with a couple intense sequences - sequences that I feel are more triumphant and poignant for having been preceded by more light-hearted fare.

A large amount of time passes in the book, with the initial invasion lasting several months and then following with a few months of relocation. The movie... never satisfactorily nails down its timeline. The invasion/ relocation takes 30 minutes tops (in movie time) and then Oh is seen hosting a housewarming party on the first day on Earth but when know one comes to his party he creates a big mess making him a fugitive. While running away he meets Tip who is looking for her mom This all happens in one basic day ~14 hours. They then travel to Paris and search the database for her mom (40 hours). They see her mom who claims to have been searching for TWO WEEKS, sorry movie but the film I'm watching could only charitably give three days.

Perhaps the biggest deviation is SPOILER ALERT SKIP TO PIC!

The Gorg. In the book they are a violent race that goes through consumables so quickly they must take planets over. They are all clones of the last member (the species fought themselves to near extinction), but the clones have a weakness - they are allergic to cats... which now that I think about it is biologically improbable but whatever. In the movie there is also one Gorg, but he is actually just the last adult. He becomes violent when trying to retrieve the next generation.

Besides showing a wonderfully convincing friendship develop between Oh and Tip this movie shows emotions in a beautiful and simple way. Boov change color. Yup, even at the beginning when they are a species unconcerned with things like art, parties, friends (heck, even neighbors), or individuality - but they still feel, most notably, fear - and when they experience an emotion they change color. AND IT IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER.

Working with preschoolers you can see that even though they feel and act on emotions they aren't always aware that they are doing so. At the beginning the only boov to really stretch out beyond purplish (default/ happy), yellow (afraid), white (terrified), or red (mad) is Oh. He noticeably shows orange (excitement) and blue (sadness). But as he gets to know Tip and experience the world and discover beauty he adds subtle shades to his colors and even gains pink. Pink is a color that seems to signify something deeper than mere happiness, it is that emotion you feel in your diaphragm that is all warm.

It is fascinating to watch how Oh reacts to situations and what color he is at different times. During a particularly intense moment towards the end he is gyrating through colors quickly, easily showing us that he is experiencing conflicting emotions and having an internal battle. I swear, when this comes out on DVD I am going to watch at least once focusing solely on Oh's color changes. Which brings me back to little kids. They don't always have a name for what they are feeling, sometimes they are experiencing so many emotions they simply act out without stopping to give a name to their current state - but this film acknowledges feelings in a simple way for children to pick up on. They can't always interpret facial cues, but they can tell the difference between blue and yellow. 

If anyone knows the creative people at Dreamworks behind this ingenious color idea, or the team that picked Oh's colors throughout the film tell them thank you from me!

All in all, definitely a movie I'm buying and enjoying many more times.

Have you seen Home? What were your thoughts? Did you like the changes made from the book? Let me know!