The Smurfs [G]

When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the smurfs out of their village, they end up right in the middle of Central Park. Desperate to get home, Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, Grouchy, Gutsy, and Clumsy inadvertently enlist the help of a married couple, Grace and Patrick, to get them back home before the wicked Gargamel catches them. 

I was never really a fan of the Smurfs. I did watch a few episodes when I was little, but I never really got into the whole Smurf phenomenon. I guess, tonight, I was just up for some mindless childish drivel that I could derive a bit of a laugh from. I was actually rather surprised that this film turned out to be rather entertaining. It’s silly, very silly to be sure, but it does harbour some moments of cleverness and heart. It’s by no means a “keeper” but I didn’t mind it at all. 

When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the smurfs out of their village, they end up right in the middle of Central Park. Desperate to get home, Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, Grouchy, Gutsy, and Clumsy inadvertently enlist the help of a married couple. Grace and Patrick, to get them back home before the wicked Gargamel catches them. 

All right, so the story is very childish and mediocre and really goes in for that airy-fairy, tra-la-la- everything-is-daisies-and-sunshine gush. It’s very much like that Leslie Gore song: 

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together. 

It just makes you cringe violently doesn’t it? 

But aside from the lame story, sentimental mush, and way too many repetitions and variations of the word “smurf”, The Smurfs actually wasn’t all that bad. I managed to derive a surprising number of laughs from some of the more clever gags and jokes that this film offered its more mature audience e.g. Katy Perry who provides the voice of Smurfette says “I kissed a smurf and I liked it”, a clever sample of her hit song I Kissed a Girl. Then we have a very clever sequence with a load of flies and their instinctive pull towards glass. But without a doubt, my favourite would have to be the Lord of the Rings sample. Hehe, watch out for that! 

Not to mention that you would not expect a film where much of the music is “tra la la” to suddenly bust out some Aerosmith and AC/DC, but Walk This Way and Back In Black are both featured on the soundtrack to good, if somewhat contrasting effect. 

Starring Hank Azaria, who was very funny as Gargamel, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, Tim Gunn, and featuring the voice talents of Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin, and George Lopez, The Smurfs was a silly, but fun little family film that harbours some delights for both junior and mature audiences. Filled with action, adventure, great animation, jokes, magic, and way too much of the colour blue, it was actually not a bad movie.