On March 27, 2015 DreamWorks Animation will introduce movie audiences to its newest animated feature film. DreamWorks HOME is an adaptation of the novel The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. The story begins when Earth is taken over by an alien race called the Boov, who promptly relocate the humans while reorganizing the planet. But when one resourceful girl, Tip, avoids their capture and finds herself in the company of a banished Boov named Oh, the two realize that there’s a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they head out on the adventure of a lifetime.

DreamWorks Animation invited a handful of journalist to an advanced screening of select scenes from the film. A Q&A with the film’s stars, Jim Parsons, Rihanna and Steve Martin, along with the film’s director, Tim Johnson, immediately followed. The scenes presented, although not complete, offered a well-rounded example of the expected tone of the finished film. They ranged from the humorous introduction of the main characters, Tip (Rihanna) and Oh (Jim Parsons), as they meet for the first time, to an action packed sequence where we were given an exciting confrontation with Smeck, the story’s villain.

During the Q&A, Director Tim Johnson talked about how he discovered and fell in love with the source material while reading the book to his five and seven year old kids. “I read two chapters, tucked the boys into bed and then did something terrible… I cheated on my kids and stayed up the rest of the evening reading it… It was the power of the characters. The comedy and beauty of the journey that they took.”

The cast also talked about what attracted them to the project. Rihanna stated, “The story just spoke to me. I found so many parallels in it and I felt like I identified with Tip. She’s essentially like a role model.” Jim Parsons added that he always wanted to do an animated film. “Then once we talked about it, I just liked the little guy, the character I was playing, so much.” He then proceeded to call the experience, “The most interesting playtime I’ve ever had as an actor.”

Parsons continued by explaining what he loved so much about the character he portrayed. “The little guy I play, Oh, the Alien, he really comes in with a set of ideas about how the world is suppose to be… and he meets the character Rihanna plays, Tip, and really understands what it is to accept other people who have different ways of doing things, and whose beliefs may be different than yours, and that you can still be very very close. That really resonates with me.”

Legendary comedian Steve Martin, who plays the movies villain, talked about how much he loves the animation process. “It’s kind of like writing a play in that you can try it out, you can change it, you can go back and experiment in seventy different ways. When I saw the first animated sequences I was really astounded. I thought it was beautiful.” Then while talking about his character, Captain Smeck, Martin joked, “As we kind of searched and found this character, and roamed around all over with him, the thing that kept coming up was dumb villain. So, I really enjoyed playing that. It’s actually quite suited to me. I don’t know what that says.”

Rihanna, who is best known as a singer, eventually got to talk about her contribution to the music in the film. “The music, it’s such an important and crucial part to an animated film… It dictates the emotion, it dictates where the story is going… I worked really closely with Tim and Jeffrey Katzenberg on this… I could bring them songs, but if it didn’t move them in a way, or they didn’t feel it made sense in a certain part, we couldn’t use it. It was very important. Very important.”

Finally, when approached about the themes he hoped the audience would take away from the film, Martin answered, “Basically, I think films are about having a good time. There is a message in the film about friendship and how valuable it is… The message of a film is always what a critic writes, the fun of a film or the emotion of a film is what the audience feels.”

For more photos, trailers, and news for DreamWorks HOME, click here, and make sure to check out DreamWorks HOME when it comes to theaters on March 27, 2015. For more family movie news, be sure to follow Adventures by Daddy on twitter and “like” our facebook page too.