‘The Smurfs’ is solid but lacks sparkle
The Smurfs
(Cert U, 98 mins, Family/Comedy/Action)
As the Blue Moon Festival approaches, Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters) experiences a horrifying vision of arch-nemesis Gargamel (Hank Azaria) imprisoning the entire Smurf village in cages.
Soon after, Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) accidentally leads Gargamel and his cat Azrael to the village and the Smurfs flee for their lives.
Papa, Smurfette (Katy Perry), Clumsy, Brainy (Fred Armisen), Gutsy (Alan Cumming) and Grouchy (George Lopez) stumble upon a portal, which sucks them into present-day New York.
Luckily, kind advertising executive Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) and his pregnant wife Grace (Jayma Mays) are on hand to help the Smurfs return to their village.
Meanwhile, Gargamel gives chase through the portal and uses his dark arts to track down his diminutive prey.
Based on the comic books by Peyo, The Smurfs brings the iconic characters to life on the small screen using the same digital magic as Alvin And The Chipmunks.
Most of the comedy is aimed at younger viewers, such as Gargamel inspecting a portable loo and choking, “Somebody has been working dark and terrible magic in there.”
Harris and Mays are both endearing in thankless roles and the vocal performances are solid though unremarkable, including a self-referential moment for Perry when Smurfette coos, “I kissed a girl... and I liked it!”
Azaria is camp rather than menacing, so younger viewers are unlikely to suffer nightmares.
The 3D format, available on one version of the Blu-ray, isn’t worth the additional cost.
Rating: 3/5.
