Movie Day: Two Different Cultures in the Movie ‘Home’

Tip (human) and Oh (Boov) are holding on to the pylon with The Starry Night (painting) by Vincent Van Gogh

Home is a science fiction comedy animated movie produced by DreamWorks Animation in 2015. The movie tells the story of two distinct creatures, human and the Boov assumed by mankind as an alien race for they do come from the outer space to rule the Earth.

The sixth meeting of  Mini Lessons Indonesia (MiLes), Sunday, August 13, 2017 at the orphanage of Graha Kasih Bapa located on Adisucipto St., KM. 11,8 was our first Movie Day. In fact, the children had once seen the movie on TV, but they were very excited to see the movie for the second time.

“Have you seen this movie?” (Facilitator)
They answered all at once, "We’ve seen it".
"Would you like to see it again?" (Facilitator)
"Sure.....",  (Children)
“Alright. Let’s watch it together”. (Facilitator)

It’s lights-out and Children are sitting comfortably

Why was  film 'Home' chosen? Is 'Home' relevant to the dreams of MiLes: Intelligent and Intercultural Children for a more peaceful world? Yes, It is.

Human and The Boov are different races. They clearly have different cultures: music and song, Party and friendship, family, technology, and conflict management

1. Music and Song

Seeing from human perspective, the Boov have peculiar music taste. All they listen to is just a lot of noise, vice versa. The Boov enjoy their song called “motionless and obedient” which literally sounds deafening like a broken tape for us.

2. Party and Friendship

Unlike human, the Boov are less sociable. They are not willing to engage in conversations or activities with other people, except it is related to their jobs.

 "Boov do not party.",

"Oh, You are not my friends."

These are two out of many statements that prove that Boov do not make friends. They live to work and for themselves. Meantime, human cannot live without chatting, partying, arisan (Indonesian type of social gathering with saving and credit activity), meeting, chilling out, and many other types of gathering and chatting on trivialities such as favorite actress and actors, football club.

3. Family

Human lives in a family, consisting of father, mother, and children. Boov do not have family. They are created and fed by adult Boov inside a warming oven until they are ready to live in the society as an independent individual. Boov are created by technology, not through biological processes as human. It is told that Oh, a Boov, who is traveling with Gratuity Tucci 'Tip' at the beginning does not understand why Tip persists finding her mother. Tip will not stop looking until she finds her mother. Boov knows nothing about family, but at the end Oh finds out that without her mother, Tip is sad-mad. 

4. Technology

The Boov are advanced in technology, outperforming human. Therefore, they can get to the Earth. Before coming to Earth, Captain Smeck, Boov Leader, says that human is a simple and backwards creature just because human cannot do better in technology.

5. Conflict Management

Under the leadership of Captain Smeck, Boov are cowards. Their slogan is Run Away. They are taught to cower, run and pull a skedaddle to be safe from their enemy and problems. They don’t try to manage the conflicts as we do. Eventually,  Captain Smeck steps down from being the leader and Oh is inaugurated as the new captain of The Boov.

Formerly, Oh was very angry to Tip for being so persistent in facing problems. Now Oh has learned his lesson and he becomes a good leader for his people.

It can be seen that human and Boov underestimate each other. This is due to Captain Smeck’s disrespecting words towards human, "Human is just like animal. We could make them better, teach to them. We are told that human are simply and backward. It is what we taught. But i am thinking now, we are wrong."  It is what Oh tells Tip, his bestfriend at the end realizing that it’s all about human that Captain Smeck told is wrong.

Sharing session

This confession is delivered after they experienced a long way travel from USA to Australia. Along the way, they communicate, exchange ideas, and understand each other better. Tip trusts him and make him a bestfriend of her. They stop fighting each other as they understand each others’ cultures. 

What questions this movie tries to leave us with?

Are we still led by Captain Smeck who underestimates other cultures and feel his own culture as the best one over others’?

Are you still going to run away from your problems?

Do you now understand what to do to manage conflicts, to reduce enemies?

This Captain Smeck figure can grow within us for many reasons. The laymen say you need to entertain yourself enough, but you actually need to read more, communicate more, listen more, and avoid the hoax. Let’s get the Captain Smeck out of us and start respecting one another. 

Indonesia Vesion by: Ningss
Translated by: Christina Sallem