The Smurfs: Review By Bawnian©-Dexeus

The Smurfs is a 2011American 3D family film.

Based on The Smurfs comic book series created by Peyo (Pierre Culliford).

Directed by: Raja Gosnell.

Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara, Jayma Mays and Hank Azaira.

Clumsy Smurf gets transported through a magical waterfall into New York city. It's up to Papa Smurf and the others to bring him back to their village while trying to escape Gargamel's evil plans.

While I wasn't born in the time The smurfs were conceived, I did manage to see the reruns enough to have had them growing up. I hummed the songs, I had some laughs, I enjoyed watching Gargamel loose in the end and Papa Smurfs unrelenting arrogant lessons. The n you read the news that Sony will be making an animated film. At first I said to myself "Why not? The kids of today will love what their parents enjoyed when the were young." The I see the trailer, and then I'm like "What the Smurf?" That's right, they decided to create a new adventure with the 21st century. Way to rape a childhood. But, $500,000,000 + later at thew worldwide box office and you can't really argue with the numbers. Well, you can, but there is no logic to do so. Why the crossover? Where they hoping for another Enchanted? Least that did a far better job with the viewers and critics.

I may sound harsh for a production specifically targeted for kids and their parents wallets, but there were no laughs, and way too many smurfin for my ears.I wouldn't know if the 3D was worth it cause but I'm not the industry's smurf each and every time they release a hack 3D job. Is it weird that I was expecting Katy Perry's Smurfette to sing solo? No? Then her casting was just a waste of money. Where the movie excels is reuniting the original voice of Papa Smurth to the franchise. The voices didn't evne help make me laugh, even with the favorite George Lopez, though miscast for Grumpy. And I see they cast that dude from Project Runway to bring in some more colors other than blue. Ah yes, about the blue, it was everywhere, and not just the smurfs. Blue everything.

The Bad:

Putting the Smurfs in the 21st century.

The Visuals:

Not knowing how good or bad the 3D was, they did a pretty decent job blending the animated characters to the life like environemtn. Oh, and actually making Hank look like a real life Gargamel.

Overall:

I'm sure the kids had a blast, and now I can scratch this blue turd off my 2011 list.

Written by: Bawnian©-Dexeus.