The Smurfs
In all honestly, “The Smurfs” movie does the last thing a truly special “Smurfs” movie should do: it transplants the tiny, blue-skinned creatures from their enchanted forest and mushroom houses and puts them in the modern, real world. If a sequel is to happen, and box-office grosses so far point to one being a possibility, I hope that Sony Animation Studios follows this train of thought…and does away with Raja Gosnell as director. Actually, their new deal with British animation house Aardman (the “Wallace & Gromit” films, “Chicken Run”) gives them a perfect collaborator. Just a thought.
As it is, “The Smurfs” is a cute, silly family movie about the ’80s cartoon icons– among Gosnell’s other kiddie “products” (namely, the two “Scooby Doo” films), it stands as the best, but that’s not saying a lot. Gosnell does get rid of a lot of those film’s fart jokes and inappropriate sexualization of the female main characters (no parents, Smurfette is NOT remodeled physically to match her voice performer, Katy Perry, although the character’s Marilyn Monroe, um, “tribute” over a heating fan might lead to a few questions), although the New York setting doesn’t help with lame “fish out of water” humor, in addition to the excessive overuse of the word, “smurf,” in many different contexts. (Note: My favorite on that last front: “We’re up the smurfin’ creek without a paddle.”) The Smurfs are well defined as characters (not hard to do when they’re just named after their personalities: my favorites– the wise Papa Smurf, the Scottish(?) Gutsy Smurf, Smurfette, and…Narrator Smurf), and are wonderfully animated in a way that’s actually more believable than Azreal, the sidekick cat to the evil wizard, Gargamel (Hank Azaria, hamming it up delightfully). Azreal is pure cartoon, but then again, so are his master’s antics. As for the great modern showman, Neil Patrick Harris, and “Glee’s” adorable Jayma Mays as the married couple the Smurfs come to know and effect in New York, well, you couldn’t ask for a better pair of sports for all the CG-antics; they sell it the best they can. Still, “The Smurfs” is a prime example of what’s wrong with a lot of modern family films: taking an original premise, and deciding to remove most of what makes it original to turn it into a generic piece of filmmaking. Here’s hoping further smurf-ventures head in the right direction.
