Kamurai
Sep 21, 2020
6/10
Decent watch, probably won't watch again, but can recommend.
I grew up watching The Smurfs, the CG Smurf animation is actually pretty good, but there is something about how they're personalized that rubs me the wrong way. Either the delivery is just different enough from the cartoon, or there is something about the Smurfs being in a modern world that I entirely disapprove of, or both.
This reminds me a lot of "Yogi Bear" where in a movie, the title character(s) should be the main focus and the most enjoyable characters. It might have actually worked against them to put Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays in this. I don't think they "upstaged" the little blue creatures, but they were, by far, the best parts of this movie, and their story was strong enough it could have been a movie to its own...in fact, I'm sure if I looked hard enough, I could find a "work is hard, I'm about to get fired, and we're about to have a baby" movie.
For something as unique as the Smurfs, the movie puts a lot of money into it not being anything special. They could have saved a lot of money by making it a "girl running from her angry boyfriend" movie. They also have NPH specifically degrading the Smurfs for their general positivity in the same manner as the villain: this makes the audience villainize the lead protagonist in this movie, as the Smurfs are relegated to little than hostages in the human movie.
Now, it's not to say that there isn't a certain level of charm to the Smurfs, but it's definitely not the Smurfs I remember, and having such a goofy villain is really all that saves the movie, and even then they go too far with some of the situations he is in.