Review of The Smurfs 2 (2013) by Hoops2448 — 02 Sep 2013

While I fortunately have no idea how this stacks up in comparison to the first Smurfs movie, The Smurfs 2 is a tragic attempt at family storytelling that pales in comparison to the excellent crop of animations from earlier this year.

When Smurfette (Katy Perry) is abducted y Gargamel (Hank Azaria) and his new creations, the Naughties, two white Smurfs called Vexy (Christina Ricci) and Hackus (J.B Smoove), Papa Smurf and a small group head to the real world to save her with the help of their human friends.

While not completely unwatchable, The Smurfs 2 is a film solely aimed at children so therefore its bright, odd but supposedly wonderful things happen and it all works out in the end. It also means that the grown ups are forced to take their kids to it and must sit through some of the worst dialogue and story ever to grace the big screen as talented actors such as Neil Patrick Harris and Brendan Gleeson are forced to act like irrational buffoons.

Harris gets the worst of it as he acts like a spoilt 14 year old boy for most of the movie (with a cringe worthy step father bonding relationship thrown in for good measure.). The voice work is find and the film doesn't drag per se but it doesn't entertain anyone but people who don't know any better and probably the criminally insane.

My suggestion is if you have children wait for the DVD and then leave it for them to watch when you are out and the babysitter has to be forced to watch it.