Musical, Animated film, Guardianeers of Good, The Council Of Evil Wizards, No Name Smurf (James Corden), Smurfette (Rihanna) Papa Smurf (John Goodman) Ken Smurf (Nick Offerman) Gargamel & Razamel (JP Karliak)  Jeanty magic book (Amy Sedaris), his thing, gets captured, a group go on a rescue mission to save him, Chris Miller the director, voice actor, Shrek the 3rd, Puss in Boots, Grouchy Smurf, Madagascar the Penguin Kowalski, Magic Mirror in Shrek, 

I grew up watching the Smurfs on Saturday mornings with my brother. We loved tuning in every week to see the adventures of our favorite blue little people, Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Handy Smurf, and their evil nemesis the wizard Gargamel. The zany exploits of these guys and gal kept us busy along with the other Saturday morning cartoons. There have been a handful of previous interactions of the Smurfs on the big screen. Most of them haven’t been that good. Unfortunately, I have to say this one isn’t very good either. Maybe kids, in which it’s geared towards, will like it more than I did as a fan as a child myself.

The Smurfs are living their normal happy lives in Smurf village. They get together each day to sing a long song led by Papa Smurf (John Goodman), but not all the Smurfs are happy. No Name Smurf (James Corden) is sad because he doesn’t know his thing yet. He gets some friendly advice from Smurfette (Rihanna), which helps him move forward in his journey. When Papa Smurf is kidnapped by the brother of Gargamel, Razamel (JP Karliak), the Smurfs have to rally together to try and find him and stop the nefarious plans of these two Wizards. Who are also trying to find a special magic book Jeanty (Amy Sedaris) that can help them rule the world.

The Smurfs have been around in one iteration or another for close to forty years. There isn’t a whole lot you can do with them. This new animated movie is proof of that. It’s all over the place. There are multiple variations it’s trying to use, and what it should have done is stick to the tried and true animation style it’s known for. The story was pretty straightforward,  but it went in all kinds of other directions, but it didn’t need to go in. The script needed a run-through or two by somebody not involved in the final product. This movie didn’t know if it wanted to be a fun and happy normal Smurfs story or some kind of realistic hybrid of that. The various styles and subplots make for a jumbled mess of a story.

There are many voice-over performances by a who’s who of Hollywood that are in this film. The big ones that I’ve already mentioned do most of the heavy lifting in this movie. Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Sandra Oh, and many others are cast in smaller roles. Corden, Goodman,  and JP Karliak, in a dual role, are the standouts from the start of this movie. There wasn’t a whole lot they could do to make these characters much more interesting than they’ve been in the past or in the case of Corden’s character throughout the runtime of this movie. These characters just didn’t do anything for me as soon as the movie started. The story they were involved in wasn’t good.

Chris Miller, the director of Smurfs, is a voice actor in his own right. He directed Shrek the 3rd, Puss in Boots, and voiced Grouchy Smurf, in Madagascar the Penguin called Kowalski, and the Magic Mirror in Shrek. He knows his way around an animated film and franchise. These are the types of movies that are right up his alley. The problem is this one is very good. It’s all over the place. He needed to focus his directing talents by not having the story be so weird. Also, not having so many characters may have helped focus the film better. This isn’t one of the better movies in his filmography, voice-over performance or not. He has many talents, but they were used properly in this movie. Hopefully, he’ll learn from this one.

The villains may have been the best part of the movie for my liking. JP Karliak as both Razamel & Gargamel was pretty entertaining to watch throughout the film. He clearly got the memo regarding to be over-the-top and zany as both of the characters he was voicing. The evil plan that Razamel has was the crux of the story. When the movie focused on him as the villain and his journey as an evil wizard, it was going in the right direction. Gargamel was a throw-in villain because he’s who fans of this franchise were already familiar with. I loved all of the nefarious exploits of the Razamel, voiced by Karliak. He was the best part of the film for me.

Smurfs tried to do too much. It didn’t know if it was a musical or a funny family film or a realistic story about finding one’s self. All the voice-over performers may have been too many. The script was a bit all over the place. All of these voice-over performances were wasted in a bad story. The villains voiced by Karliak were my favorite parts of the movie. They had some fun crazy zany bad guy moments. Smurfs should always be a straightforward family film, but this one didn’t know what it wanted to be. Most likely, kids will like it a lot more than I did because it’s geared towards them. All great animated movies should be able to cross all ages and races and creeds. This one didn’t do that at all, unfortunately. 

1 star

Dan Skip Allen