Smurfs in the City – It’s Smurf-tastic!
In the latest TV to big screen adaptation, the Smurfs invade New York and turn a family’s life upside down.
A bit of history: the Smurfs are blue creatures who are three apples tall. They live in mushroom houses in a hidden forest. There are 100 Smurfs in the village, 99 male Smurfs and one lone female Smurf, Smurfette. The Smurfs are all named after their character traits: Clumsy is accident-prone, Baker bakes, Brainy is smart, Vanity is vain, and so on.
The leader of the Smurfs is Papa Smurf, who is old and wise. The Smurfs are constantly being attacked by an evil wizard named Gargamel, who I thought wanted to eat the Smurfs, but in the movie he wanted to steal their essence and use it for evil deeds.
While the Smurfs are rehearsing for the Blue Moon Festival, Gargamel discovers the secret location of the Smurf village. The Smurfs escape, but six of them wind up sliding through a portal and end up in New York City. Azrael chases Clumsy (Anton Yelchin) as he takes cover in a big white box. That box belongs to Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris), who was just promoted to vice president of marketing for Anjelou, a cosmetics company run by the very bossy Odile (Sofía Vergara).
Odile tasks Patrick with designing a major advertising campaign for a new line of cosmetics, and the assignment is due in two days. Unfortunately, this conflicts with Grace Winslow’s (Jayma Mays) sonogram appointment, as she and Patrick are expecting their first child.
The Smurfs end up in the Winslow’s apartment and take them by surprise. Once everyone becomes acquainted, Patrick begrudgingly allows the blue creatures to stay at their apartment until they are able to get back home. Side note: the five other Smurfs that landed in NYC are: Smurfette (Katy Perry), Brainy (Fred Armisen), Gutsy (Alan Cumming), Grouchy (George Lopez), and Papa Smurf (Jonathan Winters).
Papa Smurf devises a plan to get the Smurfs back to their village, but first he needs to find a stargazer. . . makes sense. Most of the Smurfs (all except Clumsy) end up accosting Patrick at his office the next day, because they think he may have a stargazer there. They helpfully try to assist Patrick with his assignment, which really annoys Patrick and provides the audience with a few laughs.
Hank Azaria evilly played Gargamel as a nasty yet funny wizard who enjoyed emerging from the steam (that came out of the grates in the city streets) because “it was fun”. Also, he was not very nice to his cat Azrael. He would make Azrael venture into the unknown to see if it was safe, and then he would ask “Are you dead??”. It was pretty funny.
The animation was well done. As far as the 3D effects go, I don’t think they were necessary, although the Smurfs were so cute!! I want some. This is definitely a kids movie, as there were a TON of kids at the screening I attended. Fans of the 80’s cartoon will enjoy the movie, and especially the credits which are peppered with images of the Smurfs from the original cartoons. And, be warned, you WILL walk out of the theater singing, or at least humming, the “Smurfs” theme song!!
