DreamWorks Animation's 'Home' Short Film Introduces New Animated Characters

Steve Martin voices the main character in Home, a DreamWorks Animation film opening this Thanksgiving. He's Captain Smek, the leader of a race of aliens called the Boov who are searching for a new planet to call... you know. With a film like this, the studio surely hopes they're sitting on a new animated franchise. But since Home isn't based on a well-known property, how does one build buzz? How about releasing a Home short film that serves as a prequel to the movie?

Below, check out exactly that. A four minute short film called Almost Home which tells the amusing backstory to the Boov's perilous journey.

Thanks to DreamWorks Animation for the short.

I'm digging the humor here and the Boov are beautiful characters with lots and lots of potential. Since DreamWorks will release How to Train Your Dragon 2 well before Home hits theaters, we'll surely be learning much more about the film in the coming months. For now though, the Almost Home short film does a great job establishing tone and character.

Home features the voices of Steve Martin, Rihanna, Jim Parsons and Jennifer Lopez. It's directed by Tim Johnson (Antz, Over the Hedge) and is based on the book The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. It opens November 26. Here's a plot description from Empire:

Home, adapted from Adam Rex's book The True Meaning Of Smekday, finds Steve Martin as Captain Smek, the overly confident leader of the Boov, an alien race in search of a new planet to call home. When they arrive and successfully conquer the Earth, all but a handful of humans are promptly relocated.

But when one resourceful girl, Tip, (Rihanna) manages to avoid capture, she finds herself the accidental accomplice of a banished Boov named Oh (Jim Parsons). The two fugitives realize there's a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they embark on a life-altering road trip. Can they save the human race?