The Smurfs smurfs. It's one of the smurfiest smurfing smurfs you will ever waste your smurfing money on. If you are under the age of eight, you will think you've rediscovered candy. Everything here is geared toward you and your younger siblings laughing your smurfing heads off. As for the rest of the over nine demo -- prepare to see your childhood pass weakly before your eyes. Whatever charm or quaint benevolence the Belgian cartoon figures used to have has been scrubbed clean by a Hollywood who knows how to hammer out the hackneyed hit material. So out goes all the fun, in comes all the formula. By the end, the obnoxious Alvin and the Chipmunks starts to look like a stroke of genius.
On the celebration of the Harvest of the Blue Moon, Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Anton Yelchin) and his pals Grumpy (George Lopez), Gusty (Alan Cumming), Brainy (Fred Armisen), Smurfette (Katy Perry) and the patriarchal Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters) manage to escape an attack by the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and end up stumbling through a suspicious time portal.
They end up being transported to modern day New York City, and in the care of cute young couple (and parents to be), Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) Winslow. He is under deadline from his demanding cosmetics tycoon boss (Sofia Vergara) and has to come up with a new ad campaign ASAP. In the meantime, the Smurfs try to again avoid capture. Gargamel has shown up as well, and he wants them so that he can extract their essence and become the most powerful sorcerer in all the world -- real or fairy tale.
With its bevy of cat vomit jokes, Port-O-Potty riffs, ice bucket as chamber pot moments and little blue blobs clogging up the toilet takes, you can see where The Smurfs cultivates its sense of humor. You can also comprehend where it got many of its moviemaking ideas as well. No film with the name Raja Gosnell in the credits ever turns out well -- right Scooby-Doo? Yours, Mine and Ours? Beverly Hills Chihuahua? -- and in this case, the director continues his creative losing streak. There is no life or spirit in this film. Instead, it walks a predetermined line of mechanical cinematic beats hoping to mine a bit of warmth from the waiting wee ones in the audience. A certain level of fresh-from-the-womb naiveté is indeed required to even tolerate this CG stupidity.
You really have to feel bad for the actors here. Azaria, looking like the mutated offspring of Harvey Pekar and Malcolm McDowell, tries to make Gargamel a serviceable villain. By the end, he's reduced to playing part in a cartoon revision of Home Alone. Harris is hampered by having literally nothing to do. All he is available for are his raised eyebrow reaction shots and an unconscionably un-cool Rock Band spaz out to Aerosmith's "Walk this Way." For every element that tries to step outside the kid vid givens -- a shout out to the Smurfs' actual origins and their real life creator Peyo -- there's mindless slapstick and gags revolving around animal abuse.
Perhaps, if it had been made as a standard animated treat with technology giving the creatures an added dimension (by the way, the 3D is unnecessary and unimpressive) we'd have something along the lines of Ice Age or Rio. Instead, the mixture of live action and CG clashes like intelligence and studio decision-making. The Smurfs may satisfy the youngest members of your brood. After all, it was purposely made to do so. As for the rest? They'll probably tell you to go Smurf yourself.
On the celebration of the Harvest of the Blue Moon, Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Anton Yelchin) and his pals Grumpy (George Lopez), Gusty (Alan Cumming), Brainy (Fred Armisen), Smurfette (Katy Perry) and the patriarchal Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters) manage to escape an attack by the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and end up stumbling through a suspicious time portal.
They end up being transported to modern day New York City, and in the care of cute young couple (and parents to be), Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) Winslow. He is under deadline from his demanding cosmetics tycoon boss (Sofia Vergara) and has to come up with a new ad campaign ASAP. In the meantime, the Smurfs try to again avoid capture. Gargamel has shown up as well, and he wants them so that he can extract their essence and become the most powerful sorcerer in all the world -- real or fairy tale.
With its bevy of cat vomit jokes, Port-O-Potty riffs, ice bucket as chamber pot moments and little blue blobs clogging up the toilet takes, you can see where The Smurfs cultivates its sense of humor. You can also comprehend where it got many of its moviemaking ideas as well. No film with the name Raja Gosnell in the credits ever turns out well -- right Scooby-Doo? Yours, Mine and Ours? Beverly Hills Chihuahua? -- and in this case, the director continues his creative losing streak. There is no life or spirit in this film. Instead, it walks a predetermined line of mechanical cinematic beats hoping to mine a bit of warmth from the waiting wee ones in the audience. A certain level of fresh-from-the-womb naiveté is indeed required to even tolerate this CG stupidity.
You really have to feel bad for the actors here. Azaria, looking like the mutated offspring of Harvey Pekar and Malcolm McDowell, tries to make Gargamel a serviceable villain. By the end, he's reduced to playing part in a cartoon revision of Home Alone. Harris is hampered by having literally nothing to do. All he is available for are his raised eyebrow reaction shots and an unconscionably un-cool Rock Band spaz out to Aerosmith's "Walk this Way." For every element that tries to step outside the kid vid givens -- a shout out to the Smurfs' actual origins and their real life creator Peyo -- there's mindless slapstick and gags revolving around animal abuse.
Perhaps, if it had been made as a standard animated treat with technology giving the creatures an added dimension (by the way, the 3D is unnecessary and unimpressive) we'd have something along the lines of Ice Age or Rio. Instead, the mixture of live action and CG clashes like intelligence and studio decision-making. The Smurfs may satisfy the youngest members of your brood. After all, it was purposely made to do so. As for the rest? They'll probably tell you to go Smurf yourself.
