“I had a strange relationship with the Smurfs growing up. That is, I didnt really have one, but I still see them as a dear part of my childhood. Those uber conservative Jesus freak parents of mine never let me watch the show (there was a long list of those). It was some combination of them being magical, someone at church thinking they were demons, and my cousin having a nightmare about Smurfs trying to choke her. Then a few years ago my mom sends me some Smurfette pajamas. I call her out on the contradiction, and she has no idea what I’m talking about.
Nowadays, I can’t hear the word Smurf without thinking about Donnie Darko. You have no idea how much willpower it took to save that clip for this post instead of using that for my ExpDelTop100 write up.
As far as the movie, I give it a solid “”eh””. For me, the whole world of the Smurfs is kinda new. I loved meeting the lot of them early on, and would probably have been happier getting to know all of their individual personalities than embarking on their journey. BTW, IMDB the cast list. There’s a lotta cameo voices. My favorite ended up being Clumsy, and that was before I even realized he’s voiced by Anton Yelchin.
I really love kiddie movies, but this one was just too juvenile. There were a few of those “”for the parents”” jokes that I appreciated (mostly throwaway lines referencing the actor attached to the character) but everything else felt rather dumbed down. Just a lotta phone in slapstick. The munchkins in the audience seemed to appreciate it, but it basically meant I had chunks of time to just tune out.
My main reason for wanting to see this is that I absolutely adore NPH and will watch him in anything. Sadly, he was kinda dull for the first half of the movie (because of where his character was, no fault of his own). Once his character got a bit of substance he did bring some heart to it, but it’s still a little weird seeing him more on the subdued side. I like him over the top. But over the top was reserved for Hank Azaria’s Gargamel. I’ve talked about scenery chewing performances before, but this went way past that. I think it went a little too far, but then again Im not the five year old target audience. Jayma Mays was perfect casting. Sweet and sincere and grounded. Definitely the film’s strongest asset.
So this was all a matter of expectations. I expected good things because of NPH, but bad because of the reviews coming out. I think I ended up with something in between.
The Smurfs – \m/ \m/ \n