Smurfs review: Trying too hard be Trolls
After Sony’s three outings with the iconic blue Smurfs yielded mixed results, the film franchise took a brief rest. But Paramount has now revived the film series with a new animated musical simply titled Smurfs.
Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman) is taken from Smurf Village by Gargamel and his brother Razamel (both JP Karliak) and held captive in their lair as part of the wizards’ quest to find a hidden magical book that’ll turn the world evil. The Smurfs – led by Smurfette (Rihanna) and No Name Smurf (James Corden) – track down Papa Smurf’s brother Ken (Nick Offerman) to help them on their rescue mission.
It gives me no pleasure to bash a film designed for children, but they honestly deserve better than this mess. This story is beyond generic. We have seen it in various forms so many times that it’s not remotely exciting or engaging anymore.
Sometimes films can make up for familiar and well-worn storylines by being lots of fun elsewhere. However, the jokes fall flat more often than not, with only a couple eliciting a chuckle from me and fellow audience members. There are weird modern references to podcasts and LinkedIn, the repetitive use of “smurf” as a verb, and one-note jokes relating to that particular Smurf’s purpose.
The filmmakers also try to disguise the weak storyline with songs, but there are really not that many, considering it’s a musical film. The musical numbers are probably the strongest element and are mildly enjoyable in the moment, but they’re still instantly forgettable. The songs that have been promoted heavily – Rihanna’s Friend of Mine and DJ Khaled‘s Higher Love – are not in the film itself; they’re simply on the soundtrack and in the credits.
The film’s biggest selling point (if the marketing is anything to go by) is Rihanna being the voice of Smurfette, who was most recently voiced by fellow pop stars Katy Perry and Demi Lovato. Although her singing is great, Rihanna is not given the opportunity to show off her star power because Smurfette has no arc and barely anything to do. She’s nowhere near as well-defined as No Name, who is trying to find his “thing”. I know people dunk on Corden these days, but he tries the hardest to inject life into his character. But given his decline in popularity in recent years, his casting is surprising and outdated.
The voice cast are largely good – I particularly enjoyed Karliak in the dual roles of Gargamel and Razamel and Natasha Lyonne as Mama Poot – and the animation is decent, although not my favourite style. I really liked a section where they travel through different animation styles, such as claymation and anime. However, it was an odd choice to set some scenes in the live-action world – the film should have been fully animated.
This is what happens when a studio sees a successful idea and tries to replicate it for themselves. Smurfs is very clearly trying to be like Trolls, but the music isn’t entertaining enough, and it lacks the secret sauce. This would have been acceptable 10 years ago – maybe – but it doesn’t fly today.
If you want to take your kid to the cinema, do yourself a favour and see Elio, Lilo & Stitch or How to Train Your Dragon instead.
In cinemas from Friday 18th July