First off, it seems a lot of movie critics have missed the point entirely when reviewing this film and immediately jumped on the 'Smurfs Movie- URGH!' bandwagon and judged it as a 'Smurfs Movie'. They're annoying. They sing. They dance. They have silly names. There's only one girl. They use the word 'Smurf' a lot (especially instead of swear words. Guffaw) and critics, well, they don't like that. This then, in turn, warrants the film to be diabolically awful. Basically, the hate the characters and, as such, the movie must suck.
The other thing that works against the 'Smurfs' is that they're from a different time. The stories and characters, that is. These days, PIXAR (and, rightly so) have set the bar so dramatically high in regard to visuals and, more importantly, have put stress on 'Childrens' movies that cater equally for adults. The idea being that an adult going to the cinema with a child has something to enjoy as well as the child, be it innuendo, sub plot or darker tones. I cannot over emphasise how highly I regard PIXAR (especially, in my opinion, WALL-E, which is a masterpiece). As such, every kids film, these days, is compared to PIXAR. This does not work in the Smurfs favour. Smurfs are not dark. If you hate the characters you'll hate the film, and there's no changing that.
BUT
The film is, without hyprbole, the best non-Pixar Childrens film I've seen in a long, long time. In the same way Cap America recently transported me back to being 10 years old and watching 'Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade', 'The Smurfs' makes me feel like a child watching Labyrinth or the Muppets! The characters are brilliant. Anyone that hates the Smurfs clearly have only seen the bubblegum, badly animated and 'moral' Hannah Barbera cartoons and not read the cheeky, rude (and mainly stupid!) Smurfs of the original storybooks. And these Smurfs are exactly that. They argue, they love, they sing, they fight and they generally misunderstand EVERYTHING! Brilliant!
Visually.. it's great too! The opening in the Village is on par with any recent CGI and the actual characters themselves are just as well rendered as recent CGI creations. There is nothing wrong here. Also, voice casting (which was an initial worry for me) is spot on. It pains me to say it but Katie Perry is pretty darn good, actually!
Which leads me on to the purists! My main concern when the film was announced was the fact that the development process took it out of 'Medieval times' and into New York! NO! We all cried. In fact, some literally cried. Yes, they come to New York. Once you deal with that I will argue until I am, rather ironically, blue in the face that they couldn't have been MORE than faithful to the characters! They all have the same traits as the initial comics and the writers have gone FAR and beyond what I expected from them. This movie is NOT a cash cow. If it was, it wouldn't concentrate on 5 Smurfs would it? Instead it could have had over 100! It's odd that critics have deemed it such and yet overlook a trilogy of movies based on toys!? Or Cars.
I hated it in the 90's when the Smurfs discovered PC's and walkmans and cans of Cola. I certainly didn't hate this movie. They weren't 'hip' Smurfs trying desperately to reach a new generation. The Smurfs were not 20th-Century-ised at all! They were Smurfs. Okay, there is one semi-dodgy Guitar Hero set piece, the worst part of the movie... but what would a Smurfs movie be without them singing a contemporary cover song (Remember, most children these days know them from the '[i]I've got a little Puppy[/i]' era)? This is proof, once more, that the writers and producers did their research and covered every Smurfy base!
Peyo would be proud.
So,for fans and the Smurf purists out there, the characters are faithful and the nods to the books are very nice too. There's even little 'origin' moments! It's nice to see such a carefully handled franchise. Oddly, it's the 'real world' characters that are slightly out of place. God knows why they decided to go with a 'middle age crisis' sub plot for the NPH character? I suppose this was their way to relate to the adults? Hell, at least Pixar haven't done that yet! It felt crowbarred at times and yes, a film entirely in the village would have been nice (the extended opening sequence proved it would work), but still, the NY characters were not annoying and they really gave it their all. Even if the majority of adults wouldn't relate to the dilemma Patrick faces in the movie, it's still nice to see that the main focus was on the plight of the Smurfs.
To conclude, the biggest thing to know is that this is, without question, the [b]Gargamel + Azrael Show[/b]! They're cheesy and Azaria has channeled his own Gargamel mixed with elements of Dick Dasterdly. It's simply brilliant, with the dynamic between the pair very funny. Gargamel is, essentailly, a pantomime villan on the big screen and the kids (and immature adults) will love every second of it. It is stupidly OTT, but that's why it's brilliant. I've not seen a campy, cheesy villain in a long time.. the perfect nemesis for a Smurf!
It's not a film for a romantic date, or an Oscar contender, but I would happily watch this over another Sandler 'comedy' any day of the week. As I said at the start, it's a SMURF movie, and it delivers by the bucketload! My family enjoyed it! Certainly the best 'family' film this year (To be fair, Cars 2 or Mr Poo's Penguins can't hold a candle to these guys)!
And if you are worried about the film not relating to adults... wait for Gargamel's nods to other films.
I'd Smurf this movie all over again. Sorry.
Al
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