TL;DR – A complete mess of a film that fundamentally does not understand who it wants to be for, and in its attempt to be for everyone, it becomes a movie for no one.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – There are sequences with flashing lights.

Smurfs Review –

Sometimes, as a reviewer, you have to contend with reviewing films that you are clearly not the target demographic for, where you need to pull yourself out of the setting for a bit and experience it like the intended audience. But that all depends on one thing: the film actually working with the people they want it to.

So, to set the scene, a long time ago, four evil wizards captured four magical books and tried to steal all that is good in the world, but luckily, one of the books escaped and the spell was ruined. Some time later, all the Smurfs of Smurf village have come together to sing their daily song. But there is one Smurf out of sync: No Name Smurf (James Corden). Smurfette (Rihanna) tries to help No Name Smurf to find his thing, when even Shark Trainer Smurf was taken. However, as they were getting Smurfberries, No Name Smurf finds his secret talent, magic. But there has never been a Magic Smurf, and we find out why when a magical pulse tips off Razamel (JP Karliak) as to where Smurf Village is, and he captures Papa Smurf (John Goodman) so he can tell him where the last book is. Now the Smurfs have to go on a rescue mission to save Papa Smurf and the whole world.

Okay, this film was a frustrating mess. But even in that mess, some things worked well. While they refuse to commit to the musical premise, the opening number was fantastic, and if you have Rihanna in your cast, it would be stupid not to let her shine in a song or two. Overall, the voice cast was perfectly fine, there were some moments when I was watching the cast list and went ‘wait, they were in the film’, but there were even a couple of moments where they really shone. The animation was also solid. The production team has clearly worked out how to make Smurfs fit into the modern aesthetic and yet still not lose the foundation of what made them so visually recognisable. Indeed, the highlights of the film was when they cut loose with the animation styles and you got a walk down memory lane.

However, the biggest frustration with this film is that it has no idea who it wants to pitch itself at. If you are going for young kids, well, that opening lore dump was a ticket to Sleepyville. None of the humour was landing with the kids, bar one single joke that came in the third act; it was crickets for the whole session. They tried to add all these new wacky characters, but none of them struck the mark. Indeed, the only real fun I witnessed was when they got to run around the cinema after the film ended. A couple of families started to leave towards the end, and they didn’t come back.

But then, was it for the parents? No, I don’t think so either. All the humour is pitched down, with not a whole lot hidden in the weeds. The joke that they say Smurf instead of swearing doesn’t even make it the comedy gold number of three before it starts grating on you. Also, if you are someone who deeply cares about The Smurfs and wants to bring your children along to see one of your loves? Well, the wholesale hacksaw job that they do to try and fit The Smurfs into your modern cinematic universe-style cinema undermines much of what you might love about them, and you will probably come up feeling like you’re swallowing a bad pill.       

Then there were the more frustratingly inconsistent elements. For example, they went to so much trouble filming the Smurfs in the real world, which must have taken some interesting camera setups to pull off. That juxtaposition was one of the parts of the film that worked well. But when they get to Razamel’s castle, even though they go out of their way to show it is in the real world, they use the cartoon aesthetic for it and the people inside it, and I am not sure why this mismatch annoys me so, but it did at a fundamental level. Then there was the marketing that positioned Rihanna’s Smurfette as the main character. Still, the story kept trying to push James Corden’s No Name Smurf into the foreground, and I think you can gather which of the two was the better option. Also, if you are going to completely revamp the lore around The Smurfs, at least make it a good one, and not the same standard trash we have seen over and over again.     

In the end, do we recommend Smurfs? Unfortunately, the answer to that is no, no, we don’t. While some elements work, in the drive to try and reimagine The Smurfs for the 21^st century, they have lost what made them interesting in the first place. Have you watched Smurfs? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Smurfs, we would recommend to you The Wild Robot.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Smurfs
Directed by – Chris Miller
Screenplay by – Pam Brady
Based on – The Smurfs by Peyo
Music by – Henry Jackman
Edited by – Matt Landon
Production/Distribution Companies – Paramount Animation, Marcy Media Films & Paramount Pictures
Starring – Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Kurt Russell, Xolo Maridueña, Hugo Miller, Chris Miller, Billie Lourd, Marshmello, Rachel Butera, DJ Snake, Yuuki Luna, Daisuke Tsuji, Keisuke Hoashi, Spencer X & Chris Prynoski           
Rating – Australia: G; Canada: G; Germany: na; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: U; United States: PG