If there is one thing singer Rihanna wants audiences to learn from DreamWorks Animation's new film Home, then that would be empowerment.
Rihanna, 26, stars in the movie as Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, a girl who has been separated from her mother after aliens took over Earth, and she goes on a worldwide journey with the purple alien Oh just to be reunited with her.
The singer and the makers of the movie really wanted to make Home as realistic as possible, Rihanna told People magazine, but at the same time, they wanted to ignite children's imaginations. What was most important, of course, was to impart a message of hope and strength to audiences.
"We wanted little girls to feel empowered. Little girls of any size, shape, colour, race it didn't matter. We wanted girls to just feel strong and brave, empowered, beautiful and that they can do anything," she said.
Rihanna added that she wants all girls to know that they can actually take charge of their life or situation, no matter what the circumstance. They were also careful in making Tip "real" and make her body, clothes, and accent real, and Rihanna believes that her authenticity is something that kids appreciate.
Meanwhile, Rihanna's co-star Jim Parsons, who also plays Dr. Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory said that there are a lot of other things people can learn from the animated film.
Aside from empowerment, he believes that audiences can learn a lot about prejudice and learning to accept people for who they really are.
"There's something really beautiful that happens, where Oh and Tip come at each other with a bunch of preconceived notions and judgments about what the other person will be like, and those break down through the film, and I do feel by the end of it you see how wonderful things can be without those judgments and decisions made before a conversation has even taken place," Parsons told Digital Spy.
He said that it's a life lesson people need to constantly remind themselves, because it's not really helpful to judge other people before getting to know them first.
Parsons even jokingly compared his character from Home to that of Sheldon, who is very judgmental and anti-social. He said that both Oh and Sheldon actually have a "stranger in a strange land" quality, and both of them are struggling to fit in but are unsure of how to do that. The only difference, he said, is that Oh is very eager to figure out how to become accepted while Sheldon isn't.
