Thursday, April 20, 2017

[Review] Smurfs: The Lost Village


As I dazed off into the slightly trippy world of Smurfs, a major sense of déjà vu came over me. Then I realized it - Smurfs: The Lost Village is A LOT like last year's Trolls movie...but with Smurfs.

After ~the only girl in the village~ Smurfette (voiced by Demi Lovato) discovers a mysterious map, she and her friends Brainy (Danny Pudi), Clumsy (Jack McBrayer), and Hefty (Joe Manganiello) embark on a journey through the Forbidden Forest in order to search for--as the title says--a lost village. But the nasty wizard Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) is on their trail and ready to mess stuff up.

I wasn't really expecting the script to have much humor, but the script really doesn't have much humor. And I wasn't really expecting the story to be very engaging, but the story really isn't very engaging. When you think of "generic animated kids movies" this one fits the bill. While it boasts a few semi-amusing chase sequences (tiny little buggers running from much bigger buggers), the narrative is all over the place, so scattered that it also gets lost in the woods. There also are some well-intended but really basic messages of gender equality and empowerment--the kind of sentiment that makes you go "Well, duh."As for the animation, it's smooth like a balloon. The settings are colorful and whimsical and magical and filled with glowy and spunky creatures and plants.

All in all, this movie is a serviceable, mostly harmless 85 minutes of sweet eye candy. But if anything, it just made me hungry for Sour Patch Kids.

( 5/10 )


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