Review of The Smurfs (2011) by David B — 05 Jun 2012

Ok, this wasn't as bad as I expected. In films like this the "actors" were always going to be second fiddle. The plot is quite simply...simple, if is afteral aimed at kids but does well to give that awesome dry humour that the cartoons had.

I was, however 50/50 with this, meaning that I wanted it to be set mainly in Smurfville and full CGI and a part of my wanted it to be cartoon but set in the real world, both are almost facts and doesn't do a bad job of it.

The Smurf are brilliant, coming alive in simple CGI form and does amazingly well from the cartoons to 3D. The characters are there, if only the main ones and all are a joy to see, the special effects are good and you can't really ask for much more.

Niel Patrick Harris is ok as the grumpy guy who can't stand to be a failurer but transform into Mr. Nice guy far to quickly but against a weak, he does very very. I was impressed with Hank Azeria (Voices from the Simpsons) as Gargamel who was embarrasingly good.

Like I said before, this is aimed squarely at kids but I enjoyed it, it was a tad too short but not long enough to spare you the predictable jokes and gags,it is funny but more hit and miss. Kids will love this but adults might think this is another Hollywood rip-off trying to spice up and old Kids TV cartoon.

It's not bad, better than most kids adapation but nothing new in improving except to try and make it real. If your a fan of the Smurfs, you'll love it, if not...well, it's way better than Scooby-Doo.

Better than you might think, but not spectacular either. Oh yeah, the music's quite catchy...