Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)

Genres

Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Director

Kelly Asbury

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Mandy Patinkin, Joe Manganiello, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi, Julia Roberts, Michelle Rodriguez, Ellie Kemper, Ariel Winter, Meghan Trainor, Jake Johnson, Gordon Ramsay 

Storyline

Smurfette (Demi Lovato), Brainy (Danny Pudi), Clumsy (Jack McBrayer) and Hefty (Joe Manganiello) embark on a journey to find a mysterious lost village before the evil Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) does. 

Opinion

After being disappointed with both of Raja Gosnell's films, I was really looking forward for another film to do justice to Peyo's cartoon. But of course that didn't happen with Smurfs: The Lost Village, another mediocre attempt at bringing those little blue cuties to the screen.

I do know it's a kids film, but the story is so simple, straightforward and predictable it's insulting. It's also boring and there's too much nonsense going on, especially towards the end, it's hard to deal with it. And it's all very unfortunate because the lost village plot could have given this film what it needed to be way superior to its predecessors.

Another problem with this film is the characters. They are bland, generic, clichéed and uninteresting. And there are too many of them introduced all at once only to be soon forgotten. Other than Smurfette, Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty's personalities - whom I already knew from the cartoon - I just can't remember anything about the new characters because of how generic they are.

The villain is another problem. While Rainn Wilson does a good job, with all these movies being made, Gargamel is turning into a very boring and uninteresting villain. Isn't about time to use another villain?

The only thing that keeps the film moving is the music. It's kinda fun - although too pop for my tastes - but it still has a flaw, it's forgettable. Just like the humour.

Forgettable is also the appropriate word to describe the animation. It's colourful and vibrant and manages to capture the magic of the Lost Village and Enchanted Forest, but it looks incredibly cheap at times. It's 2017, it should be better than this.