Tries to reinvent the characters – again
By James Jay Edwardds
For the Sun
Rating: ++
out of ++++
Running Time: 92 minutes
This feature from Paramount Pictures opens in theaters everywhere Friday, July 18.
For almost 70 years, the Smurfs have been doing their thing, first in comic books, then on television, and finally on film. Created by comic book artist Peyo (real name Pierre Culliford), the little blue creatures may be the most famous pop culture export from the country of Belgium. Every few years, The Smurfs have a bit of a resurgence in America, and they’re about due for one now. So, right on cue, here’s their newest movie, simply called Smurfs.
Smurfs is about a Smurf called No Name Smurf (James Corden) who, as his name suggests, is struggling to find his identity. While all of the other Smurfs have their “thing” – Grumpy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Clumsy Smurf – No Name doesn’t, so with the help of his best friend, Smurfette (Rihanna), he attempts to find his “thing.”
This search leads him to discover magic, and he unwittingly discloses the location of a magic book that is being hidden from a group of intergalactic wizards. This leads to Papa Smurf (John Goodman) getting smurfnapped by the evil wizards Razamel and Garagmel (both voiced by JP Karliak). So, without their leader, and with their whole village in jeopardy, a group of Smurfs led by Smurfette and No Name set out to save Papa and retrieve the magic book.
Directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third, Puss in Boots) from a script written by Pam Brady (Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken), Smurfs is, at its root, a simple hero’s journey quest movie. Except the story itself is anything but simple. There are a handful of good laughs, mainly thanks to one-liners or quick visual gags, but the overall narrative is a mess. It’s convoluted and overly complex, and doesn’t make a lot of sense, even for a Smurfs movie.
The animation style is basically the same slick, computer-generated animation that audiences have come to expect from modern Pixar/Dreamworks/Disney movies. It’s impressive to look at, but lacks the heart and soul of classic animation. It does get a little unique as the Smurfs go along on their quest and wind up in the world of the humans – there’s a little live-action/animation hybrid along the lines of Roger Rabbit going on there. And at one point, there’s a cool segment where the characters wind up going through different dimensions that all use different styles of animation, including anime and 8-bit video game animations. But mostly, Smurfs is more of the same sterile cartooning that has saturated the 21st century.
In fact, the only thing that saves Smurfs from feeling completely like a straight-to-video offering is the A-list cast. In addition to Rihanna, Corden, and Goodman, the ensemble of voice talents also includes Kurt Russell, Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Jimmy Kimmel, Sandra Oh, Alex Winter, Daniel Levy, and Billie Lourd. With a cast like that, there’s no way Smurfs wouldn’t get a theatrical release. Whether or not it deserves one is a different question.
Because they’ve got Rihanna as one of the leads, there are a couple of songs tossed into the movie. Unfortunately, the songs are generic and unmemorable, and feel awkwardly shoehorned in because, well, they have Rhianna as one of their leads. Fortunately, there are only a couple of these songs, and they’re over quick enough.
This may sound a bit too harsh. And it may actually be a bit too harsh. Truthfully, Smurfs has the same familiar and likeable characters that kids have come to know and love, so the movie will probably go over well with its target audience. And there’s enough PG-rated stuff snuck in to keep the parents somewhat entertained along the way. There’s even a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments. But Smurfs is nothing special. It will eventually wind up in the pile of forgotten animated movies destined to live on in Nickelodeon channel reruns.
Interestingly enough, the end credits feature scenes from the movie depicted in the same visual storyboard style as the 80’s The Smurfs cartoons, which just makes adults who remember them pine for what could have been if the whole movie was done that way. In another universe, Smurfs is a full-blown nostalgic trip to the past. In this one, it’s just another movie.
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