With his kids along for the ride , Terry is given the ultimate opportunity to show up for his children, helping them dodge dangerous aliens and robots and engage in laser fights. But the visits to alien worlds and the death-defying fight sequences only serve as a backdrop for a more grounded, universal story., at its heart, is a space-set family drama about a parent wanting to reconnect with his growing children.
Instead of trying to tell the story from only one perspective, Downing and Harpin’s team of writers and animators have used various techniques—both in the scripting and the visual framing of specific scenes—to highlight how Terry and Lisa in particular, despite not seeing eye-to-eye on most things, are searching for a way to get through to each other.