Jim Parsons and Rihanna star in the animated film 'Home'

Jim Parsons and Rihanna lend their voices for the animated film 'Home,' which follows an alien and a girl from Earth. Jim Parsons stars on 'The Big Bang Theory.'

It’s fair to say that most of the famous movies that’ve revolved around the friendship between a young human and alien have involved a boy and an other-worldly creature (Elliott and E.T., Hogarth and the Iron Giant, etc.), though there are certainly memorable exceptions to that rule - Lilo and Stitch, being one of the better known. We can soon add another to that list in the form of Home, next year’s springtime release from DreamWorks Animation, formerly titled Happy Smekday! after Adam Rex’s source book, “The True Meaning of Smekday”. (Note: A 4-minute animated prologue to the film, titled “Almost Home”, has been attached to a couple of the recent DreamWorks animated releases.)

Home tells the story of ‘Tip’ (voiced by Rihanna), a teenager who crosses paths with Oh (Jim Parsons), a member of the Boov alien race, which has been hiding out on Earth. Oh, according to a montage in the movie’s first trailer (featured above), earned his name by being a perpetual nuisance to everyone around him; shame too since, other than being a bit clueless and having a bad habit of playing with the moving seat in the car too much, Oh seems like a pretty nice fellow, all things considered.

Anyone, the first trailer for Home focuses on introducing its central buddy duo from different planets, saving the task of plot sketching for a later theatrical preview. The thematic core of the story seems to be resemble that from DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragonseries, while the human and animation style seem more on par with the colorful and quirky tendencies of the animation studio’s The Croods.

Rex’s source novel was adapted by screenwriter Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Epic), while the film adaptation was directed by Tim Johnson (Antz, Over the Hedge). Based on those credentials and the footage unveiled so far, Home probably won’t rank as high as DreamWorks’ best work in the past (see: the How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda movies), but it could well reach the same quality level as a solid animated feature like The Croods, appropriately enough.

Rounding out the voice cast for Home are such big names as Jennifer Lopez and Steve Martin, along with such folk as Matt Jones, whose credits include a stint on Breaking Bad and a voice-acting role on Beware the Batman.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.