SMURFS

Name: SMURFS
Item: SMURFS
Author: Review

"Kindness Always Wins"

Family Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

SMURFS is an animated musical comedy. No Name is a Smurf who hasn’t found his “thing” yet. He and other Smurfs must go on a rescue mission when Papa Smurf’s kidnapped by the evil wizard Razamel, who’s set on ridding the world of all goodness. The mission takes them around the world, from Paris to Australia, as they meet other Smurfs along the way. No Name discovers along the way the power in believing in yourself and having loving, supportive friends. He also finds his destiny in his quest to save the world.

SMURFS has positive moral, redemptive messages. It extols kindness, believing in yourself, not being afraid to fail, sacrifice, forgiveness, and stepping up to fight against evil. The movie includes original music by Rihanna and blends 3D animation with Claymation, anime-inspired 2D animation, CG elements, and live action. However, SMURFS is hampered by lackluster execution, making for a frustrating product and less then memorable movie. SMURFS also contains occult elements like magic spells, portals and evil wizards, plus action and comic violence. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older pre-teen children.

Content:

(BB, C, O, FR, H, V, N, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview where good triumphs over evil, the main characters support and are loyal to each other, evil is punished for its wrongdoings (though not all evil characters get their just desserts), plus some light Christian, redemptive content such as one character gladly sacrifices himself for his friends, and characters implicitly forgive one character for hiding the truth by saving him, light occult elements with use of magic, spells, evil chanting, plus movie explains that the world began with four magical books, which counteracts the Christian view of God creating the world, and a humanist multiverse is portrayed where characters can travel through portals to other universes;

Foul Language:

No foul language, but several uses of “smurf” or other words to replace obvious obscenities (“What the shell,” “that’s a load of Smurf,” “Smurf it,” “I can Smurf that Smurf up,” the list goes on), and some scatological humor such as “I think I just smurfed my pants”;

Violence:

Lots of light action and comic violence: instances of reckless car driving, various magic attacks like laser beams, chase sequences (in one, the Smurfs are chased by real-life dogs and are nearly hit by zooming motorcycles and a street cleaner), a character’s hand is squashed in a machine, and he’s in pain, one character hits his head on a water cooler, one character lets go of a cliff and falls into a portal, presumed dead, several characters are sucked into an ominous portal, one character is injured and rendered unconscious, a cat transforms into a large flying beast, giant stone creatures come to life and fight Claymation versions of the characters, one Claymation character’s arms are ripped off and stuck back onto his face, and the same character rips off his leg and chucks it at another character (this is actually quite shocking compared to the other light violence because it’s unexpected and in a different animation medium).

Sex:

No sex, but a Smurf makes an implicit comment to his former lover (“We’ll always have Paris”), to which the Smurfs respond with oohs and teasing kissing sounds;

Nudity:

Natural upper male Smurf nudity, clothes are knocked off a character but all you see is his back as he’s sent soaring;

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use, but the Smurfs go to a club (disco), and there are colorful drinks served that are likely alcohol;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Light miscellaneous immorality, where one character’s brother expresses care for him, and the character doesn’t return it and instead insults and abandons his brother, a character betrays his team while opting for ultimate power, but he’s shown to be in the wrong and is punished for it, light dysfunctional family portrayal: Smurfette is revealed to have been part of the evil wizards’ family, though it’s clear she doesn’t associate with them and is wholly part of the Smurf group, and a character hides important information that later is revealed, which leads other characters to be angry with him for not telling them the truth.

More Detail:

SMURFS is an animated musical comedy about a character who feels lost about his purpose in a community where everyone has a “thing.” Despite its positive messaging, moral worldview and decent animation, SMURFS falls flat with its lackluster execution.

No Name is the only Smurf in Smurf Village who doesn’t have his own thing. He’s tried just about everything, with no result. Papa Smurf and Smurfette assure the dejected No Name that he’ll find his thing. Little does he realize, the magical book that the village is secretly hiding is watching him, and she “grants” him magical powers.

Excited to show the village his newfound powers, No Name shoots a beam in the sky, much to Papa Smurf’s horror. The beam leads the evil wizard Razamel straight to Smurf Village. Papa Smurf is kidnapped via portal, but not before he tells the Smurfs to find Ken.

The Smurfs find a record that, when played with a gramophone, turns into a portal and sucks them all (including Turtle) into the real world. They undergo scary encounter with dogs, motorcycles and a street cleaner, before being rescued by a group of street-smart Smurfs. When they claim to be looking for Ken, the leader of the Paris division, Moxie Smurf, takes them to a club where the disco ball serves as a Smurf hideout.

There, the Smurfs encounter Ken, Papa Smurf’s brother that none of them knew existed. No Name tries to create a portal that takes the group straight to Razamel’s castle, but the castle’s force field bounces them off and sends them to Australia. While there, the Smurfs visit an underground group of furballs called poots, led by Mama Poot.

When Mama Poot learns where they plan to go, she refuses to help the Smurfs save Papa Smurf due to the danger. No Name escapes, afraid of facing the evil wizards. Smurfette encourages him in song form, telling him to believe in himself. When they return to the poot base, however, it’s destroyed. Mama Poot tells them that her poots and all the other Smurfs were kidnapped by Razamel. Together, they rush to Razamel’s castle. Will No Name discover his thing and save his friends?

SMURFS is a messy, albeit colorful film. Certain aspects should still be celebrated, such as the movie’s positive messages promoting kindness and believing in yourself. That said, the movie is confusing in its execution.

The hero is told to find the power within, and it seems like his “ability” would be the loyalty and care he has for his friends that would lead him to protect them, no matter the cost. The movie’s climax opts for a magic fix, which undermines the story’s message.

SMURFS also suffers from a lack of identity itself. It isn’t sure what kind of movie it wants to be and where to market it.

For example, heartfelt moments between Smurfette and No Name are undercut by jarring tonal shifts, such as a traumatic flashback played for laughs. The humor of the movie is quite hit-or-miss as well. Razamel and Joel play well off each other, but there is an overload of “smurfisms” from the title characters.

SMURFS was clearly influenced by animated movies like SPIDERVERSE, with not only the use of a multiverse but a blend of different animation mediums. The live action set pieces have many characters sidelined as well.

The movie’s marketing doesn’t do the movie justice. As a result, when the movie actually has a heart and a good message, it’s just buried under the confusion. In addition, some of the marketing rides of pop singer Rihanna, and her more mature voice isn’t a good fit for the optimistic, friendly Smurfette.

If you want your children to have something fun to watch with a positive message about loyalty and finding that you have always had the power within, it will be an entertaining movie for them.

SMURFS has positive messages promoting kindness, believing in yourself, not being afraid to fail, and stepping up to fight against evil. The movie includes original music by Rihanna and blends 3D animation with clay animation, anime-inspired 2D animation, CG elements, and live action. Finally, SMURFS contains elements like magic spells, portals, evil wizards, and a multiverse, plus some action and comic violence. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.

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Quality:

- Content: +4

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