Almost Home (2014)

"Almost Home" is a 4-minute promo short film for the (then) upcoming animated movie "Home" based on a novel by Adam Rex. The director is Todd Wilderman and his most know work so far was "Open Season 2", which he co-directed. This little movie here is basically the same joke for 4 minutes. However, at this runtime it is fine I guess. It may not have been enough for 7 minutes or more. we follow a group of little purple aliens who want to explore a new planet, but everywhere they get, they run into severe difficulties which makes them leave right away. If they are lucky, that is, as sometimes the planet is also hit by a huge comet and explodes. In the end, they approach Planet Earth and the movie ends where the full feature takes off. I have not seen "Home" (yet), but I probably will at some point. The voice of Steve Martin is in here already just like in the "real" movie. Okay short film. Recommended.

Twentieth Century Fox, please explain to every Australian, why would you advertise an upcoming 3D DreamWorks computer-graphics-animated movie called HOME, when Twentieth Century Fox had no intention of ever showing that film in 3D? ABOUT HOME was released from 7 March 2014 by Twentieth Century Fox, to be then screened with each new DreamWorks children's' movie. I have seen this fast-paced, wonderful, charming and captivating 3D DreamWorks computer-graphics-animated four minute comedy short called "ALMOST HOME" several times now. Before the 3D Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and 3D Penguins of Madagascar, plus the Blue Sky Studios film 3D Rio 2.The Boov's ship runs from several "safe" planets, where the dictator leader of the aliens called the Boov, their Captain Smek (voiced by Steve Martin) had assured his fellow Boov that there was no possibility of any danger to the Boov, however again and again, each new safe planet turns out to be very unsafe. Captain Smek, is very funny as the forever lying dictator who continually takes credit for finding each new planet, however when each planet turns out horrible, suddenly Captain Smek denies responsibility. The trouble is that on 19th March 2015, I went to see the full length 3D version of HOME in my local multi-screen cinema, but if you live anywhere in Australia, then Twentieth Century Fox has chosen to never ever allow screenings of the full length 3D version of HOME in any of our 2,057 Australian Cinema screens.

This short consists of a bunch of very strange looking aliens bouncing from planet to planet looking for a new home. The leader (voiced by Steve Martin) is very funny because he takes credit for EVERYTHING--and when each planet turns out horrible, suddenly he's not responsible!I found myself really irritated as I watched "Almost Home". After all, it had amazingly good computer animation and made me laugh. But, after really getting in to this short film, I felt like it was all just a giant come on when you realize it's less intended as a cartoon short and more just an ad for some upcoming Dreamworks release! For shame! Now I am not against the notion of using these characters in a future full- length film--they are cute and the character design was really nice. But the film just ends--without any sort of resolution or proper ending- -just a teaser for the longer film. To me, this showed contempt for the audience and they could have easily wrapped up the short instead of just having it end after four minutes!

Thousands of young ladies (ages 3 to 8) from around here collect unicorns. Usually a mom of one or more such youngsters needn't spend a lot of her time fretting over whether a cartoon release from a major studio is going to be "unicorn friendly." Most features referencing unicorns are animated, but not every cartoon features unicorns. Far from it. It's usually a case of "feast or famine" with unicorns. Either you have lots of unicorns in your flick--such as several of the MY LITTLE PONY videos, or the original FANTASIA release, as well as the MIA & ME television series--or unicorns don't exist for the purpose of your movie. (If unicorns appear in a live action film, it's usually NOT in a nice way, and it's something intended for older or much older girls, such as the first Harry Potter flick, or THE CABIN IN THE WOODS from two years ago.) When it was announced that MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN would be preceded by an "updated" Rocky and Bullwinkle short, I did not think twice about there being a "red flag" raised in regard to suitability for young unicorn lovers. Both original versions of these cartoons were "unicorn neutral," meaning NO unicorns. Therefore, no alarm bells went off in my head that MR. PEABODY would need a red alert (like when a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood), because I could not IMAGINE that he, or Sherman, Rocky, or Bullwinkle would allow anything to be said or shown to scare the BEJABBERS out of impressionable young "Unicorners," as we like to say around here.Imagine my SHOCK & DISMAY when something called ABOUT HOME came onto the screen instead of our promised Rocky & Bullwinkle, AND BEGAN SPOUTING OFF ABOUT "CARNIVOROUS UNICORNS"!! How would YOU feel? What would YOU do? Naturally, my entire party of 12 walked out, exchanging our tickets for a showing of FROZEN (the "Sing-Along" version) which started 35 minutes later (and which most of us had seen once or twice previously; but we'd already "invested" a total of about $70 at the concession stand; this episode cost us AN ADDITIONAL $20 or so, between the refill charges and the Unplanned, Un-budgeted-for arcade games). This ABOUT HOME short was not making much sense BEFORE it got to its ill-considered reference to the gentle, magical horse. Obviously, ABOUT HOME director Todd Wilderman has never met a little lady. But someone on his studio's staff SHOULD have been bright enough to realize that you do NOT bring in some horror gambit from THE CABIN IN THE WOODS to an animated short sprung on parents WITH NO WARNING. I know of two or three young ladies who have woken up screaming in the middle of the night, thinking a unicorn was about to eat them. You do NOT tell millions of kids in the single digits (age-wise) that there ain't no Santy-Claus, and you do NOT scare thousands of young lady Unicorners that their beloved magical creature might eat them for dinner!