If You Love Smurfs, You’ll Like The Smurfs Movie

Who didn’t grow up on The Smurfs? When I was a little girl, Papa Smurf was my hero, with his wisdom and caring for the other Smurfs, and Vanity made me laugh with his, well, vanity. Throw in Neil Patrick Harris, and The Smurfs ended up being the one movie I couldn’t miss this summer. Judging by the lines outside the theater I had to wait in for the movie, I was not alone in this belief. The Smurfs turned out to be – well, smurfy.

Now, you can love The Smurfs and realize that some parts of it are annoying. The iconic theme song never gets out of your head, and sometimes it’s just confusing that Smurfs use the word “smurf” for everything. This is handled very well in the movie with it being pointed out that these traits are annoying–and let’s face it, someone had to say it. There was also a lot of weird moments that made me wonder if the fourth wall even existed. The Smurfs were created by Peyo, who wrote comic books on them, and this is kind of how it went in the movie, too. They were “mystical creatures” who were documented by Peyo. There’s a moment where they’re reading their own book. It was odd. However, you have to take the good with the bad, and that was most of the bad right there.

The Smurfs has a very distinct target audience, and that audience is kids. The kids in the audience I was in were loving it. You know who else loved it? The adults. There were times in the movie that adults were applauding for the Smurfs. On the one hand, yes, it was not the same cartoon any of us grew up with, but on the other hand, it was a character driven cartoon. Stories came together based on which Smurfs were involved, and that’s exactly what happened in this movie.

While we do get glimpses of all the Smurfs, including the new “Narrator Smurf,” the movie mostly follows Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, Grumpy, Gutsy, and Clumsy. While I agree that there can’t be a Smurfs movie without Papa, Smurfette, Grumpy, or–and I begrudgingly admit this–Brainy, there are more iconic Smurfs than Gutsy. Jokey or Hefty, for example, or even my beloved Vanity. There couldn’t be a movie without Clumsy, as he was so important to the plot and he’s adorable anyway, but I did spend a lot of the movie trying to remember Gutsy’s name. I guess that Jokey or Vanity wouldn’t work well in the movie, especially given that Clumsy was there, and that would lead to a little too much incompetence.  Gutsy didn’t hurt the movie–he was just not a choice in Smurf I would have made.

Neil Patrick Harris was what sold me on this movie. In all fairness, they do keep making movies based on stuff I’ve grown up with, and I’m happy with the result only half of the time. I would have waited to rent The Smurfs if Neil Patrick Harris hadn’t been in it, but he was, and I love him in everything he does. He’s a brilliant actor, and I knew that he couldn’t be in a movie I hated. Harris’s Patrick was a great character to watch. Patrick had to overcome his own uncertainties and learn when to step in and do the right thing, and NPH nailed it. He was believable, and it was cute that the first time he goes with his gut in the movie, he’s humming the Smurf song.

What made me a little bit wary about seeing this movie is live-action Gargamel and Azreal. This was similar to a technique employed by the movie Rocky and Bullwinkle, and it was weird then. It turned out to be not so bad, except that I know what Hank Azaria, who played Gargamel, is famous for, and it was really hard for me not to hear Moe Szyslak. The voices were just too similar. I did decide if they ever made a live action Simpsons movie, Hank Azaria would make a great live action Moe, but at the same time, it was distracting enough that I couldn’t judge Azaria on his ability to portray Gargamel.

I want to give Sony props on their subtlety when it comes to the billboards in New York. It was easy to miss the ads on the billboards, but if you happened to catch it, you could see ads for the upcoming Arthur Christmas and TV’s Community, both of which are Sony properties. I have no doubts they snuck others in, but those were the two I caught, and they actually went by fast enough that it didn’t feel like they were blatantly advertising themselves while at the same time, if you catch it, you were advertised to.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie The Smurfs. It reminded me of the show I loved so much as a little girl. The audience also enjoyed themselves, and everyone clapped at the end credits. If you actually enjoy The Smurfs, and can put up with the annoying elements such as the theme song, using the word smurf for everything, and Brainy, then you’ll probably like the movie.