Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
There may be no place like home, but there are a lot of places like Home, an animated adventure about the unlikely friendship between a lonely girl and an alien misfit that can't help but feel familiar.

Name : Neil Genzlinger / Alias : New York Times
A charming concoction with positive messages for younger children about conquering fears, understanding outsiders and knowing yourself.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Director Tim Johnson ("Over the Hedge") and his animators can't maintain this level of freshness throughout, but that's where Parsons and his goofy charm take over.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : New York Daily News
The Gummi-colored animation is imaginative, but director Tim Johnson's ho-hum 3D cartoon remains strictly 1D.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : USA Today
Key characters are admirably diverse, but the fast-paced tale is thoroughly predictable.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Like the timorous Boov, "Home" has little interest in risk-taking.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
The bland "Home" is a crash pad at best.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Anyone over 10 will see the plot twists a mile away. Kids will probably enjoy the goofy Boovs, the rainbows of colors and the music. Call me a traditionalist, but I still say the world was a better place before those darn Boovs invaded.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
The film moves quickly and keeps the jokes coming, which only means that "Home" would rather keep young viewers occupied than give them something to think about.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : ChristyLemire.com
Heartwarming and harmless? Sure, why not. But it's also numbing in its simplicity and often rather annoying.

Name : Geoff Pevere / Alias : Globe and Mail
A big, fat happy meal of a movie .

Name : Sandie Angulo Chen / Alias : Washington Post
This kiddie sci-fi adaptation doesn't quite live up to its evocative title.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
I brought a couple of my kids, who liked it fine and found the friendship at the center rather affecting.

Name : James Rocchi / Alias : TheWrap
As animated sci-fi for small fry, it's a success whose modest but well-executed ambitions are no small part of its charm.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Aggressive and cynical approach to children's entertainment, pummeling viewers with mechanical-looking action sequences (which suggest video game demos), unfunny one-liners, and overly loud pop songs and sound effects.

Name : Betsy Sharkey / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Tension is one of "Home's" biggest issues. There just isn't nearly enough of it. Story is another. Even a kids' movie needs more complexity and more invention.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
It works moderately well thanks largely to the voice talents of Jim Parsons and, to a lesser extent, Steve Martin. Two droll dudes who put a fair share of funny into this animated picture.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
A surprisingly moving tale of friendship and family, dressed up as an adorably frivolous sci-fi comedy.

Name : Nancy Churnin / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Maybe it's because kids sometimes feel like aliens in a grown-up world, but from E.T. and Elliott to Lilo and Stitch, pairing a child with a creature from outer space can prove to be a winning combination.

Name : Tom Huddleston / Alias : Time Out
Inoffensive but flavourless, and crammed with familiar elements from better movies like Lilo and Stitch , Toy Story and Despicable Me .

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Aside from Parsons' initially amusingly mangled Yoda-like English, which gets a tad repetitive, Home doesn't stand out as fresh or particularly funny.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When we scratch beneath the sugary surface, there's something tart inside that's difficult to digest.

Name : Dana Rose Falcone / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
The combination of Home's layered message, fun score, and clever comedy make it a colorful choice for moviegoers of any age.

Name : Maricar Estrella / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Tim Johnson ( Antz) has capitalized on DreamWorks' proprietary animation platform, Apollo to create a rich, intricate setting.But the technology doesn't save the film from falling flat on other levels.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
An earnest exercise that falls flat, despite the best of intentions.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
DreamWorks movies are often about outsiders learning that they don't have to fit in, a lesson the filmmakers may not have absorbed themselves.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
From a creative standpoint, this is the studio's least exciting feature yet - hardly its worst, execution-wise, but entirely lacking in the risk-taking spirit that has spawned such successful franchises as "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and "Dragon."

Name : Barbara VanDenburgh / Alias : Arizona Republic
Lazy gags, and it's been done better elsewhere.

Name : Andrew Parker / Alias : Globe and Mail
Has a handful of novel 3-D effects, lots of bright colours, competent animation and little else.

Name : Chris Packham / Alias : Village Voice
Through photos and family lore, but mostly through Dayton's own eloquence, Mitchell assembles a biographical portrait that's inspiring in the best possible way.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Pacing can be painfully languid, to the point of being nap-inducing.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The sort of uninspired international pre-sales item that usually goes straight from a basement booth at the Cannes film market to a Netflix parent's peripheral vision.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Belgians may have bragging rights on waffles, but judging from "The Wild Life," their animated fare needs help.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Whether dangling characters off the edge of a cliff or zooming around Crusoe's rickety wooden waterslide, the story is constantly on the go, launching objects and characters along the Z axis - and out over the audiences' heads.

Name : Helen T. Verongos / Alias : New York Times
"The Wild Life" is pretty to look at, with its skies and ocean, calm or stormy, and it has a driving soundtrack. But the story lacks that extra layer of complexity and meaning that parents can appreciate.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : TheWrap
A dull, uninspired and frantically tedious animated re-telling of the Robinson Crusoe story, complete with a menagerie of ditzy, caterwauling beasts. Consequently, this cacophonous misfire feels a good deal longer than its 91-minute running time.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
"The Wild Life" is an import from Belgium that should have been left at customs.

Name : Anita Gates / Alias : New York Times
The burning question is why Mr. Hyde's story has never been made into a feature film.

Name : Raakhee Mirchandani / Alias : New York Daily News
Kids might be amused, but adults will find the jokes weak, the narrative bleak and little to pass the time between animal chase scenes.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
The animators are clearly trying to craft something bubbly, but they misguidedly go all in on imitating the contemporary Disney model - or DreamWorks', at least - rather than offering anything different.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
All things considered, this pitifully plotted Belgian-French production represents the nadir of animated movies released so far this year, a farrago of frantic action and mindless cacophony.

Name : Jody Mitori / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It's like the generic version of a Disney movie.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
It's no great shock when a movie based on a beloved book falls short of the original, but few fail as confoundingly as "The Wild Life."

Name : Michael Ordona / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It exists in the kids-only zone where parents go to pay for their sins or, hopefully, get a nap.

Name : Sheila O'Malley / Alias : RogerEbert.com
There's always a lot to look at. The script is so-so, but the total lack of snark and cynicism in the film is refreshing.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A confused, charmless take on the Robinson Crusoe story.

Name : Jordan Mintzer / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An impressively made if highly juvenile version of a literary classic.