Smurfs: The Lost Village

The last time I smurfed out a Smurfs movie, I don't remember smurfing liking it. So what smurfed my attention back to the land of little blue people? A new smurfing direction for one thing! Whereas the last two Smurf movies mixed live-action and animation, Smurfs: The Lost Village is completely animated. And surprisingly, this exceeds any smurfy expectations.

This smurffest reiterates how Smurfette (Demi Lovato) was created by the evil Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) and turned good by Papa Smurf (Mandy Patinkin). Everything's smurffing great in Smurf Village for everybody but Smurfette. They've all got clearly defined smurffing personalities but her. So she explores the wall surrounding this Forbidden Forrest. She finds someone roaming around. That someone drops a Smurf Cap of a different color, which means there's more where that came from.

That's great news for Gargamel, who wants all their Smurffin essence for himself. So Smurfette sets out with Hefty Smurf (Joe Manganiello), Clumsy Smurf (Jack McBrayer) and Brainy Smurf (Danny Pudi) to locate the other Smurfs to warn them about Gargamel. Strange creatures await them. A bigger surprise awaits them when they meet the new Smurfs.

What's there to smurffing like about it? The humor is nowhere near as obnoxious as The Smurfs 2. The characters were likable in their own ways. The voice cast characterize them pretty well (even if Gargamel's casting change needs some getting used to).The story went along at a mostly nicely paced 90 minutes. Should I say smurffing more? I think I should.

The visual department get some smurffing points. The animated environments looked good, but the floating river was awesome. The textures of the Smurfs' clothing looked incredibly real. The creatures the Smurfs meet were nicely designed. The Smurfs themselves are uniquely defined despite their chromatic similarities.

The story is where it nearly trips on its big feet. Our heroes have a mostly placid journey. The Floating River sequence was intense and a scene with neon bunnies was fun, but that's about it. Speaking of the main bunny, Bucky, what's up with him glowing neon even in daylight? Barely anything is a serious threat until Gargamel finally finds the hidden Smurf village. That is why I said it was  "mostly nicely paced." The climax hinges on Smurfette being invulnerable to Gargamel's magic due to her origin. And Gargamel so doesn't consider her a threat it's laughable. The last few minutes were emotional even if the outcome was obvious.

Smurfs: The Lost Village is a smurffin improvement over The Smurfs 2. It's not spectacular, but it's not spectacularly cringeworthy. It's a nice, quiet pre-summer matinee for the whole family. Or it's a nice, summer matinee provided you can find it still in the next few weeks. Given its slow reception at the box office, you might have the whole theater to yourself. 

I didn't.