RETURN OF THE SMURFS
Blue folks head to big screen
I wasn’t looking forward to another Smurfing Smurf movie. (Pardon my Smurf.) After the dreadful live-action/computer-generated mash-ups of 2011 and 2013, the series held a special place in my heart, alongside the four Alvin and the Chipmunks movies and the 10 plagues of Egypt.
But the makers of Smurfs: The Lost Village have learned a valuable lesson — pick on someone your own size! As a result, the latest chapter is an all-cartoon affair, freeing Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria and the rest of the live-action cast to lead fuller, more productive lives.
There’s still a full-size villain in Gargamel, voiced by Rainn Wilson, but he’s as cartoon as everyone else in this simple, inoffensive, G-rated story. The plot finds Smurfette (Demi Lovato) heading into the forbidden forest, where she’s spotted evidence of a different kind of Smurf. Gargamel is looking for them, too.
Accompanying her on this quest are Brainy (Danny Pudi), Clumsy (perfectly voiced by Jack McBrayer) and Hefty (Joe Manganiello), who has the mildest of flirtations with the tribe’s lone female. Of greater concern to kids and grown-ups alike is that, like Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World, Smurfette has to go through the whole thing in heels.
But maybe director Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2, Gnomeo & Juliet) didn’t want to rock the boat too much. And so the Smurfs are pretty much as you’ll remember them from the 1980s TV series — decent chaps, each with a single defining characteristic, not unlike Antoine Fuqua’s
Magnificent Seven except, you know, on purpose.
They make their way through the movie with nary a nod to modern culture; no SmurfChat for them.
Even the sound effects are old school, with mouth harps and slide whistles and that diving-board boi-yoi-yoi-yoing sound to represent springiness.
About the only evidence of modernity is hiring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay as the voice of Baker Smurf.
The cast also includes Mandy Patinkin as the mildly befuddled Papa Smurf, and (at the risk of letting Azrael out of the bag) Julia Roberts, Ellie Kemper and Ariel Winter.
Throw in Michelle Rodriguez along with the forest setting, blue skin hues and some unusual animals (glowing rabbits?), and there’s a bit of an Avatar vibe in The Lost Village.
It also brushes up against Trolls, although with less originality and fewer songs; the big number is Meghan Trainor singing I’m a Lady.
The film doesn’t even feature the Smurfs’ la-laaaa-la-la-la-la theme song, which is one more reason to like it.
Parents may not get much out this kids’ movie, but at least they won’t be stuffing popcorn in their ears.