Smurfs. Blue. Meh.

Movie Title:  Smurfs: The Lost Village

Grade:  C

Rating:  PG, 1 hour 30 minutes

In a Nutshell:  Little ones will be entertained while parents snooze during this Sony Picture animation.  The cast is a pretty impressive collection of movie stars, Grammy winners, comedians, and even a celebrity chef (Gordon Ramsey), including Julia Roberts, Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Mandy Patinkin, Meghan Trainor, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Danny Pudi, Ellie Kemper, and so many more.

Uplifting theme: 

• Friendship, loyalty, kindness, love
• Labels and names
• Let people be who they are
• Girl power

Things I liked:

• Demi Lovato plays Smurfette.  I wish she would have sung more.
• The talented Rainn Wilson (The Office: The Complete Series) voices the bad guy, Gargamel.  I’m surprised he hasn’t been cast in more animated movies.
• Jack McBrayer has the perfect Smurf voice.
• I love to see Mandy Patinkin in anything.  My all-time favorite line of his comes from another one of my all-time favorite movies The Princess Bride: “Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepared to die!”  My family recites that often.
• Michelle Rodriguez voices “SmurfStorm” and stars in The Fate of the Furious.  You can see my movie review of Fate of the Furious here. Congrats to her for having two movies out in theaters at the same time!
• It’s extremely colorful.
• Lots of action.
• Some of the creatures are pretty adorable.
• There isn't blatant merchandising by Sony like in the last film. 

Things I didn’t like:

• I really didn't want to see this movie.  The last ones were so bad. This one just didn’t grab me either, although it was better.  I’ve just never gotten into any of the Smurf movies for some reason.  I know some adults are true blue fans.   For me, zzzzz….
• It’s extremely predictable.
• SPOILER:  fake death scene, obligatory dance scene at the end of the movie.
• Quite a few scenes looked like they were trying to copy the magic of Avatar.
• It’s really hard to tell the various Smurfs apart sometimes.
• It’s super contrived.  It has all of the elements that usually create the magical formula for animation hits.  There’s just something missing....something lost....a village maybe?  ha ha

Funny lines:

• “It’s like a workout for my eyeballs.” – Smurf (which one?)
• “I’m really freaking out you guys!” – Clumsy Smurf (Jack McBrayer)
• “Dang, girl smurfs mean business.” – Clumsy Smurf

Tips for parents: 

• ZERO profanity.   Yay!
• Some mild fighting
• Expected butt jokes and some other rude, childish humor.
• Safe family entertainment.

@trinaboice