What was I thinking? I knew this movie was going to be bad, but yet I felt compelled to go see it for myself. I was never really a big fan of the Smurfs cartoon but yet I remember I wanted that Smurfs Atari game so bad. Later I found out that it was horrible but I'm sure I would have loved it as a kid. Why did I go see this?
It's not completely terrible. Hank Azaria did a very good job playing Gargamel and I could actually see the cartoon counterpart that he was based on. I didn't see this in 3D but I can imagine it would be pretty entertaining to watch in that format. I just didn't pay for the 3D because I didn't want to pay more for a bad film, and I had been suffering with headaches lately. I didn't want to make it worse.
With that being said, the film centers around the Smurfs escaping from Gargamel who found them in their village. In some weird way, they come across this portal they knew nothing about until that time, and they are forced to go into this portal in order to escape from Gargamel and his CG cat Azriel. There, the Smurfs stumble upon New York City where they find the care of Doogie Houser and his cute, pregnant wife. They must find a way back home while being hunted by Gargamel on the streets of New York, and Doogie is trying to not to get fired from his cosmetics job.
One of my biggest problems is that I never felt connected to the Smurfs. The only ones that I really knew was Papa Smurf (who can ever forget Papa Smurf anyway), Smurfette and Clumsy Smurf who the only reason why I knew him is because they always reference how clumsy he is, gets left behind, and I knew that he was going to be the hero by the end of it all. Movie 101: If a character in your film is the underdog, he will always prevail in the end. This film is no exception.
The film is basically sloppy writing through and through, especially in the ending. The film could have ended easily by having the adults handle all the work but we couldn't have a Smurfs climax without having them be the center of it. So they basically just have the adults just stand around somewhere as the Smurfs get their butts kicked by Gargamel.
It's a kid's film and this film knows it. The kids will eat this up despite probably never seeing the cartoons. It wasn't the worst film I've seen but certainly not the greatest of kid's films. It was directed by Raja Gosnell. I should have stayed far away. Smurf you, Raja.
