The aggressively mediocre, unimaginative, and low effort rebooting of Smurfs is the ultimate in nap-time cinema for the youngest possible crowd. Offering absolutely nothing to any demographic over the age of five, Smurfs is the kind of disposable movie that even the target audience will be tired of after seeing it and loving it once. The very, very young – who tend to like anything jaunty and colourful – will have a fun time with this in the theatre, but even they’re likely to have gotten all they’ll get out of this after a single viewing. After that and for every other time parents will be forced to watch it at home, it’s a perfect babysitter for putting the little ones straight to sleep. It’s unlikely to be heralded as a childhood classic by anyone in the future, making it another cratered attempt to milk all of Peyo’s cute, blue creations for all they’re worth.
Writer Pam Brady (The Bubble, Hamlet 2, Hot Rod) and director Chris Miller (Shrek the Third, Puss in Boots) try to create a bit of lore about the fun loving creatures from Smurf Village early on, positioning themselves as guardians of a magical book (voiced by Amy Sedaris) that’s sought by Razamel, the evil and estranged sorcerer brother of noted Smurf antagonist, Gargamel (both voiced by JP Karliak). The Smurfs have stayed hidden from Razamel for a long time until the bumbling, but kind hearted No Name Smurf (James Corden) acquires magical powers that accidentally lead their nemesis straight to their hideout. Razamel kidnaps Papa Smurf (John Goodman), and it’s up to No Name and Smurfette (Rihanna) to head up a team of their brethren to the “real world” and save their leader and village.
Visually, Smurfs shows some promise early on. The animation has a lot of dimension, depth, and colour, which is nice at first, but as Smurfs drags on, it becomes clear that Miller’s visuals won’t deviate much. There’s a sameness and boring familiarity to Smurfs that reeks of a cash grab for all parties involved. There’s lots of bits where the characters are zipping through the air from place to place like they’re on a roller coaster, which has become an animated movie cliche by this point. There are many forgettable musical numbers about the power of teamwork and the importance of individuality (several from Rihanna, who hasn’t put out an album in a decade only to drop… this), and all of it feels like a Wish version of a Trolls movie. Those weren’t great works of cinema, either, as they kept getting cranked out with diminishing returns, but from a financial standpoint, I guess there are worse ways to make money.
With the notable exceptions of Dan Levy (as Razamel’s harried intern) and Natasha Lyonne (as a sentient fuzzball who has to help the Smurfs on their quest), the voice cast sounds like a lot of people putting in the bare minimum for a paycheque. Corden and Rihanna are bland. Nick Offerman sounds absolutely over it as Papa Smurf’s long lost brother. Performers like Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billy Lourd, and Kurt Russell all blend into the background so fully that one almost can’t tell they were even in the film. The characters in Smurfs are so one note that no one can bring them to life outside of rendering them visually in a computer.
Outside of one playful, but all too brief sequence of the heroes travelling through a variety of dimensions with different animation styles and some choice line readings from Lyonne, the jokes in Smurfs are all low aiming and tiresome. The Smurfs have always relied on Smurf puns and thinly veiled Smurf cursing to generate chuckles, but here none of that is presented with any degree of energy or humour. The gags just sit there dying slow deaths on screen, making the ninety minutes of barely existing narrative feel like an eternity. Everything in Smurfs has been done before and better, not just in other big screen Smurf outings (none of which were great to begin with), but in every other successful mainstream animated film from the past twenty years. (See also the Despicable Me franchise, from which this film lifts everything involving its villains.) If it wasn’t so cutesy and aimed at barely verbal children, this would be even more dire. But, hey, if it moves a few plushies, what’s the damage, right?
Smurfs opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, July 18, 2025.
