So, with the disclaimer that this is yes, a formulaic kids' movie, and yes, it's aimed at the nine-and-under set, this is a perfectly fine, even slightly above average film. I have to count myself as a Smurf Hatah from the 80s, and while I'm a bit indifferent to the original comics (they were weird but not weird enough) they were clearly better.
What we have here is a moderately smart tongue-in-cheek post-modern appreciation of the fact that the 80s cartoon Smurfs were incredibly annoying - embracing the original characters even as there's a wink -- the Smurfs admitting their singing is incredibly annoying, and then still doing it, rather sweetly and within limits; the Neil Patrick Harris character pointing out the ludicrousness of the weird premise of 98 male smurfs and 1 female smurf and the whole "Smurf the Smurf, Smurf" vocabulary so we all can get past it and to the slightly "blue" humor (e.g. "Get the Smurf Out of here") and all sorts of reflexive jokes, such as Smurfette, voiced by Katy Perry, saying "I kissed a Smurf...and I liked it!" The plot is your standard 1960s live action Disney film, in the same vein as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or Herbie, that ilk, with the benefit of 21st century CGI mixed in with the live action and the aforementioned post-modern self-reference. They even work in a nice homage to Peyo by having the Smurfs read up on him (and get a solution to one of their problems) in a book about Les Schtroumpfs. And as boring and trite as that may seem to adult reviewers here, it's at the level of monomyth for the seven year olds in the audience.
The PG is largely for the double entendres that will fly over kids' heads, a little very mild bathroom humor, and extremely cartoonish (appropriately) violence mostly having to do with Gargamel and Azrael getting bonked and zapped as they try to smurf the smurfing Smurfs.
Harris and Hank Azaria do star turns, Harris as the Fred McMurray-everyman-Dad type, and Azaria as Gargamel. There's no nuance or subtlety because THAT'S NOT WHAT KIDS WANT TO SEE IN A MOVIE. Cheers to them for doing them.
If you insist on being a hipster, content yourself with trying to spot the many visual inside film cinematic quotes. I spotted clever visual quotes from Reservoir Dogs, Braveheart, the Rock, and the Planet of the Apes, among others.
And, we get a modestly hip soundtrack running from Vampire Weekend to the Smurfs doing a sort of duet with Run DMC and Neil Patrick via Guitar Hero.
So stop complaining. What did you expect from a Smurfs live action movie? I expected far less than what I got, which was more entertainment sitting with the kids in the movie theater than I had from the likes of Gnomeo and Juliet.
What we have here is a moderately smart tongue-in-cheek post-modern appreciation of the fact that the 80s cartoon Smurfs were incredibly annoying - embracing the original characters even as there's a wink -- the Smurfs admitting their singing is incredibly annoying, and then still doing it, rather sweetly and within limits; the Neil Patrick Harris character pointing out the ludicrousness of the weird premise of 98 male smurfs and 1 female smurf and the whole "Smurf the Smurf, Smurf" vocabulary so we all can get past it and to the slightly "blue" humor (e.g. "Get the Smurf Out of here") and all sorts of reflexive jokes, such as Smurfette, voiced by Katy Perry, saying "I kissed a Smurf...and I liked it!" The plot is your standard 1960s live action Disney film, in the same vein as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes or Herbie, that ilk, with the benefit of 21st century CGI mixed in with the live action and the aforementioned post-modern self-reference. They even work in a nice homage to Peyo by having the Smurfs read up on him (and get a solution to one of their problems) in a book about Les Schtroumpfs. And as boring and trite as that may seem to adult reviewers here, it's at the level of monomyth for the seven year olds in the audience.
The PG is largely for the double entendres that will fly over kids' heads, a little very mild bathroom humor, and extremely cartoonish (appropriately) violence mostly having to do with Gargamel and Azrael getting bonked and zapped as they try to smurf the smurfing Smurfs.
Harris and Hank Azaria do star turns, Harris as the Fred McMurray-everyman-Dad type, and Azaria as Gargamel. There's no nuance or subtlety because THAT'S NOT WHAT KIDS WANT TO SEE IN A MOVIE. Cheers to them for doing them.
If you insist on being a hipster, content yourself with trying to spot the many visual inside film cinematic quotes. I spotted clever visual quotes from Reservoir Dogs, Braveheart, the Rock, and the Planet of the Apes, among others.
And, we get a modestly hip soundtrack running from Vampire Weekend to the Smurfs doing a sort of duet with Run DMC and Neil Patrick via Guitar Hero.
So stop complaining. What did you expect from a Smurfs live action movie? I expected far less than what I got, which was more entertainment sitting with the kids in the movie theater than I had from the likes of Gnomeo and Juliet.