Smurfs has almost nothing new for audiences, whether they’re newcomers or well-versed in the adventures of these diminutive blue creatures. (And to be fair, the last theatrically-released Smurfs feature was released in 2017, before most of the target demographic for this latest film was born.) Either way, the “go to the place and get the thing” plotting is tiresome enough to make a 92-minute running time feel like an eternity.
The original Smurfs plot was simple enough, with the happy-go-lucky village of Smurfs hiding out from the evil wizard Gargamel and his cat Azrael. But Smurfs 2025 feels as overstuffed as a latter-day Marvel movie, introducing four sacred books that must be hidden away from a cadre of evil wizards, not to mention never-before-mentioned brothers for both Gargamel and bearded blue paterfamilias Papa Smurf.
We open in Smurf Village, where the gratingly familiar “la la la” theme soon gives way to a DJ-driven dance number where we’re introduced to Papa (voiced by John Goodman), sole female Smurfette (Rihanna), weightlifter Hefty (Alex Winter), solipsist Vanity (Maya Erskine), genius Brainy (Xolo Madridueña), anxious Worry (Billie Lourd), and No-Name (James Corden). That last Smurf, as one may well guess, is upset that, unlike the other Smurfs, he doesn’t yet have a defining “thing.” And if that plot point sounds familiar, it may be that you watched Smurfette suffer a similar identity crisis in 2017’s Smurfs: The Lost Village.
Lost Village happens to be the best of the contemporary Smurf movies, and it’s also completely ignored here; not only does its separate matriarchal Smurf village apparently no longer exist, but Smurfette must also once again question her worth — she’s the only Smurf who was molded out of clay by Gargamel (JP Karliak) rather than being born… however Smurfs are born. (And yes, I’m as surprised as anyone to learn that I remember anything about Smurf lore, but somehow Smurfs is unleashing my inner canon-nerd.)
Gargamel takes a back seat here to his brother Razamel (also Karliak), who’s out to snag that fourth sacred book from Papa Smurf’s safekeeping; once Razamel kidnaps Papa Smurf, a cadre of Smurfs sets out to rescue him, taking them in and out of various dimensions and introducing them to Papa’s estranged brother Ken (Nick Offerman) as well as a fuzzy troll named Mama Poot (Natasha Lyonne, planting a flag for herself as an A-list animation voice from now until doomsday).
All this dimension-hopping puts our tiny heroes into human spaces like a Paris disco (where Rihanna’s “Please Don’t Stop the Music” is playing, of course), the Munich autobahn, and the Australian outback. Thankfully, screenwriter Pam Brady (Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken) would rather use these locations as a way for the Smurfs to run into, say, a herd of kangaroos than a slumming movie star (like Sofia Vergara or Neil Patrick Harris in 2011’s The Smurfs). And without dreary humans to worry about, the contrast between the clearly cartoony protagonists and the granular details of planet Earth provides the film with some much-needed visual zing.
What Brady doesn’t do well here is spin her plates, so between all these new characters and their intergalactic teleportations, there’s barely time for plot and character, let alone jokes. And that’s a shame, considering that Brady’s screenwriting career launched with minted comedy classics like South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Hot Rod. Every few scenes, there’s a chuckle-worthy bon mot or sight gag, or the animation style will alter radically for some plot-driven reason, but there’s far too much downtime between Smurfs’ sporadic delights.
It’s a script so familiar and stale that Smurfette actually says “Believe in yourself” to No-Name at one point, and that’s a kid-movie line of dialogue that should be banished forever, no matter how noble the sentiment. If you’re already pitching your work to audiences willing to buy tickets to see a movie about little blue beings who live under mushrooms, why play it safe?
Director: Chris Miller
Screenwriter: Pam Brady; Smurfs created by Peyo
Cast: Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Marshmello, Kurt Russell, John Goodman
Producers: Jay Brown, Ty Ty Smith, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, Ryan Harris
Executive producers: Pete Chiappetta, Anthony Tittanegro, Andrew Lary
Production design: Max Boas
Editing: Joyce Arrastia
Music: Henry Jackman
Sound design: Glynna Grimala, supervising dialogue/adr editor
Production companies: Paramount Animation, Domain Entertainment
In English
92 minutes
