I suspect most readers will have at least basic familiarity with the Smurfs, a Belgian “cultural” import that appeared on US television in the early 80s. You know – the show featuring small blue creatures who live in mushrooms and are constantly plagued by an amusingly incompetent wizard and his slightly smarter feline companion. No, that wasn’t a drug induced haze from your youth – that really was a TV show.
A theory of the time believed the cartoon series to be an elaborate plot to destroy America’s competitiveness by reducing our children’s vocabulary to the word “smurf.” Although in the present day, it seems equally likely to me that NBC just decided to save some money by not bothering to translate 25% of the words from French, replacing them instead with “smurf” or “smurfing”. Which apparently meant something else entirely from what it does today…nevermind – I looked it up – the non-specific constant use of the word “Smurf” was already a mainstay of the original.
I missed the full-on Smurf love foisted on my generation by a hair, resulting in a reasonable but incomplete familiarity with the little blue peoples’ mythology. So I appreciated the backstory provided in the film’s beginning – first by a traditional voiceover narration, and then by evil wizard Gargamel as he puts on a little puppet show at home for his cat Azrael. Via his voicing of smurf patriarch Papa Smurf, we learn the elder of the tribe lives in an enchanted forest with 99 sons and one female – no, nothing weird about that at all (those are Gargamel’s words, not mine).
And if you’re looking for The Smurf’s 3D to go all edgy in the vein of some of discourse of Donnie Darko, you’re going to be disappointed. That one line is as deep as the film is going to go into addressing questions regarding the social and sexual mores of the Smurf population posed by the over-11 set.
The Smurfs are going about their daily business, which largely is about having fun preparing for their blue moon festival and mistreating Clumsy Smurf (who for the remainder of this review I will call Klutzy Smurf – just because I like that better). Oh, almost forgot to mention – each Smurf is named for the one thing they do well – Brainy Smurf, Painter Smurf ….. etc. So basically it’s a village of little blue people each of whose identity celebrates some over-the-top stereotype. Also doesn’t seem the best evolutionary strategy should they lose one of their people in a Gargamel incident. But it’s possible I’m over thinking this…
In the process of fleeing an attack, a core group of Smurfs take a wrong turn and are sucked through a vortex that transports them to present day Central Park. With Gargamel hot on their heels, they lose Klutzy when he falls into a box of supplies carried by Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris). Patrick has just taken on a stressful assignment to produce a marketing campaign overnight for his ridiculously caricatured pushy boss (Sofia Vergara). It’s a clear “movie job” where people work for five minutes to complete a major marketing campaign and say things like, “I need you to give me what I need, not what I want” while swishing around dressed to the nines and firing people for minor trivialities. Into his life the Smurfs come, showering him in a blue bath of creative destruction that of course will leave him and his adorable, pregnant wife Grace (Jayma Mays) all the better for it.
For those who remember the cartoon, it won’t be a huge surprise that the production values of the 3D outing are superior. The blending of animation and reality are pretty seamless. The 3D of course isn’t really necessary. Though when the prompt came onscreen to put on your glasses (the one with the picture of the giant floating spectacles) the appreciative sounds of awe and wonder from the kids in the audience already wearing theirs made me think it might be worth the coin for parents. Amusingly that group wow factor never quite seemed to be repeated throughout the actual film. The 3D effect is used sparingly – though there’s one pretty awesome shot where something magical flies from behind the audience towards the screen. I haven’t noticed seeing that gimmick previously and it really worked well. So I’m pretty neutral on the, “Do you want to see it in 3D?” question. I’m also sort of neutral on the, “Should you see it at all?” question.
It’s hard for me to evaluate whether this was a film children would like. The main data points I have were from youths seated around me who seemed quite into the experience. One boy in my row was physically unable to stay in his seat he was so excited. I believe adult viewers not overwhelmed by nostalgia will find less to mentally latch onto. Wile Hank Azaria was wonderful as Gargamel ( I particularly dug his fondness for emerging dramatically from smoke rising from NYC sewer grates), there’s not much meat to things, and the film felt long even at under two hours. Not surprisingly given the definition of each Smurf by their role the character development is rather unidimensional.
There’s also what I took as an out of place theme onscreen – working to convince expectant dads to be that they haven’t made a HORRIBLE mistake. You may think I’m making that up – but I don’t believe I am. For the kids, there the messages were pretty uncontroversial. Such as that even if you have weaknesses or are known for one “thing”, you don’t have to be defined by society’s present perception of them. Or something like that – maybe the point is just to sell more shitty blue toys to kids.
In a line following the predictable climax, Grouchy Smurf (or maybe Grumpy – whichever doesn’t violate whatever intellectual property rights improbably attach to the Disney for the Snow White stories) states, “I hated this far less than I expected. But I still hated it.” I’d say the first part of that sentence sums up my review. Truth be told, the second part doesn’t apply to me – there’s really nothing to hate – unless you get super militant in expecting nothing but the best for our nation’s kids. But sometimes a movie can just be a goofy movie – and that’s about the best thing I can say about this one.