Dreamworks’ ‘Home’ Will Be First 3D Animated Film Starring Black Character
In 2009 young Black girls and women finally got a taste of what it was like to have representation in a major animated film. Disney released The Princess And The Frog featuring Tiana, the first Black Disney Princess. The film was revolutionary and controversial. While it was fantastic to see the Black princess Tiana going through the stages of the heroine’s journey through a Disney lens, fans were disappointed in a few aspects of the story. The chief point of contention was that Princess Tiana took the form of a frog for two-thirds of the film. Black audiences got to see the true Tiana at the beginning and end of the movie. Fans knew there was no hope of getting another Black Disney princess, at least not in the near future, and made due with that they had. But now its Dreamworks to the rescue. Dreamworks is producing an animated film about a Black young girl named Tip (voiced by Rhianna) who sets out to save humanity from alien invaders. Better yet, there’s no amphibian morphing involved. Read the synposis for the film, titled Home, 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?
Home will arrive in theaters November 26, 2014. Check out the preview released by Dreamworks below. It doesn’t include the character Tip.
